Digimon: Evolution Adventure
by digitaldreams0801
Summary: Around 25 years have passed since the final battle between the DigiDestined and their final enemy. Peace has come to both worlds at last. However, this serenity is not due to last long, especially with an organization set on destroying the DigiDestined on the rise...
1. 1) The Problematic Gateway

The overwhelming and resonating sound of a bell flooded the streets near one of the schools of Odaiba, Japan. Cries could be heard as students cheered for their freedom now that the day had come to a close at last. Footsteps pounded on the ground as student after student and clique after clique of students ran for their homes to enjoy the rest of the day.

Not many ever chose to stay behind on these sorts of days. Those who did were often regarded as either the strange characters of their grade or school obsessed geeks. And yet, even so, a duo of kids stood inside the school in silence.

These two were most certainly in the category of 'strange characters', but not for the reasons many imagined. Most thought that they were relatively normal children in the seventh and sixth grade, but they were anything but. They had a secret, and it was this very secret that had them staying inside this warm late February night.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like?"

One of the two people, a girl had spoken up. Her name was Milachiko Kamiya, though she preferred to go by Mila. At that moment, she was leaning up against the wall, arms crossed over her chest as she stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

Mila's brown hair, which was the same color as her eyes, was tied up into a simple ponytail. She had an orange pair of goggles propped up on her forehead, the surface of which shone delicately in the fluorescent lighting overhead. Mila wore a jean jacket with shirt sleeves over a simple yet fiery scarlet shirt. White socks went up her ankles underneath orange athletic shoes. She had jean shorts on, the shade of which matched the pale of her jacket.

"I'm just thinking out loud," Mila told her companion, a child one year younger than her. "Have you ever really thought about how amazing it would be to actually go there? It would be amazing."

Mila's best friend, Sakigone Ishida (though everybody called them Saki), turned to face her. "I suppose I have a few times," they replied.

Saki's blonde hair was short, but rather spiky. Their eyes were a pristine ocean blue color, quite the contrast to Mila's chocolate irises. They had a light blue hoodie on that had pastel green on the hem. Underneath was a pale yellow shirt Mila had seen at least a hundred shirt, one adorned with an important symbol of Friendship in green. They wore gray leggings with one lime green stripe running down either side. Saki's boots were of the combat variety and were pitch black.

Mila pushed herself away from the wall. "My dad told me another one of his stories last night. All that ever accomplishes is giving me more ideas for my daydreams of the wonders of the Digital World," she told Saki. "The very thought excites me so much that I can barely stand still!"

This subject is what made Saki and Mila so different from their peers. They were part of a small group that had special connections to do with Digimon, the digital monsters that thrived in the Digital World, a realm parallel to Earth. The two of them had partner Digimon and had since the age of three, yet another thing that set them apart.

For many, the Digital World was nothing more than a long forgotten memory. Around 25 years before, Digimon had popped up virtually everywhere, but it had all been contained since then. Only the parents of Saki, Mila, and their friends, otherwise known as DigiDestined, remembered it all. Their connections to the other world had passed onto their children, but their adventures had not. None of the kids had been to the Digital World since they were three, back when they met their partners, but each of them, especially Mila, longed to go there and see everything there was to.

Saki, on the other hand, was a bit more hesitant to travel there. "It's dangerous, you know," they reminded Mila as they scooped their books up from where the stack sat on the floor. "My dad's been preaching that since day one. I'm surprised that your father is even allowed to tell you about these things at this point. He knows how you and your imagination are."

"I'm glad that he tells me about it," grinned Mila. "It makes me want to go there more."

"And that's exactly why he needs to stop telling you," Saki told her. They started walking for the front of the school building, the taller Mila on their heels. "But it doesn't matter. Regardless of how much he tells you, we can't get over there. Only our parents know how to open a portal. We can't do it yet. We aren't going to be taught about it until we're sixteen. You know the drill."

Mila pushed open the door to the outside with a sigh. "Yeah. Partner at three, Digivice at nine, Crest at fourteen, Gate at sixteen," she said. She had droned those words off at least fifteen times in her life, most of the time since Saki was giving her one of these speeches about the other world. Despite being younger than Mila, Saki was most certainly the most sensible out of the two.

"Exactly. It's best if we stay on schedule and let things happen whenever they happen," Saki said, turning right once out on the street.

"We could always just ask one of the other kids if they know how to open the Gate," smirked Mila.

"I believe that we just went over this. We learn to open the Gate when we turn sixteen," Saki reminded Mila, raising an eyebrow. They were beginning to get suspicious of if their friend had something up her sleeve.

"Thing about it this way. Rei is the child of an expert on the Digital World. They have to know something we don't," Mila said. "I bet that if we ask them, they'll be able to tell us something about it."

Saki let a sigh escape their lips. "You can ask if you want, but I doubt that there will be anything Rei can do."

"We're going to find out together!" Mila cried out, seizing Saki's hand. The blonde child gasped in shock and looked up to meet Mila's eyes. Their suspicions about Mila planning something had been confirmed, but they couldn't entirely tell if this was a good or a bad thing. "Come on. Let's go ask them together."

Saki looked down. They knew Mila quite well, as the two had been close for ages. One of the things that they had picked up over the years was that if Mila was determined to do something, she would find a way to pull it off. Struggling against Mila's determination, especially when it came to reaching the Digital World after years of dreaming, was futile.

"Alright," Saki finally said with a sigh. "Let's go and look for Rei."

Mila took a step forward, a wide grin on her lips, only to stop. "Do we know where Rei is exactly?" she asked of Saki. Her excited smile had transformed into one that practically bled awkwardness.

Saki placed a finger on their chin. "They usually stay after school for computer club. You know how they love their computers. If we want to look anywhere for them, the computer room is our best bet," they said.

"So... Back into the school it is?" Mila asked. She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder st the school, building that she and Saki had left behind here minutes before.

Saki nodded. "Yeah. I'll text my father and tell him to tell your parents that we're staying after school with Rei," they told Mila. They pulled a small device out of their pocket, one that looked sort of like a miniature laptop. They began to type out a message to one Matt Ishida about how they were staying with Mila and Rei. Within thirty seconds, Saki had hit send and the message was already on its way to their father.

Saki shut their small laptop, which was known as a D-Terminal to those who happened to be DigiDestined, and looked up at Mila once more. "I hope they don't end up ignoring us again. We both know how Rei is when they're near a computer."

Mila shrugged. "If worst comes to worst, I'll just annoy the hell out of him until he pays attention to us," she told Saki simply. She turned on her heel and started for the school building once more, herhair swaying slightly in the breeze that blew in the aor around her.

Saki followed after her a few steps behind. They prayed as much as they could that Rei didn't have a way into the Digital World. They knew Mila would stupidly rush into danger once she arrived, which was the last thing Saki wanted to happen.

* * *

The back of Saki's hand hit the door to the computer room. Mila stood beside them, hands folded behind her back. She was hoping that Rei was the one to answer the door. Mila didn't exactly get along with the leader of the computer club, a boy named Hirazaki Sukui. Once, Mila had kicked her soccer ball and accidentally hit Hirazaki in the face with it, which made her one of the most hated people by the computer club. The only one who had remained fine with her was Rei.

Luckily, the universe had heard her plea. The door creaked open as Rakuji "Rei" Izumi twisted the knob to the side and pulled it towards them. Rei's red hair was in its typical neat fashion. Their blue eyes shone brightly. They wore a red jacket over a black shirt with jeans. Freckles dotted their cheeks. They had purple gloves lined in blue on either hand, tight to their skin for easy computer access. Their shoes were black, flat, and shiny.

"Thank God," Mila couldn't help but whisper to herself. She looked up at Rei properly and waved at them. "Hey, Rei. How are you today?"

Rei sighed and shook their head. They, much like Saki, had known Mila for years and knew the way she acted when she wanted something. They had picked up on her cues already, even if she had only spoken six words to him. "What do you want?" they asked.

Mila pouted to herself and looked down. "Damn... You always see through me so easily," she whispered. She shook it off and looked up to meet his eyes again regardless. "Saki and I were just wondering about if you know how to open a Gate to the Digital World."

Rei's eyes went wide. They ducked out of the classroom and shut the door behind themselves. "You can't talk about that when other people are close by, you know!" they hissed at Mila. "My father works a lot already to make sure that the Digital World isn't exposed to the public. Our job is made a lot easier when people don't go blabbing about it."

"Well, excuse me, princess," Mila said, rolling her eyes. "I know that I can't talk about it often. I've heard it a thousand times already. I just want to know if you can open a Gate for us. Your father is the great Izzy Izumi, so it makes sense to me that you'd know how to open up the Gate out of all of us kids."

Rei pulled a piece of paper out of their pocket. "I had a feeling you'd be coming," they said as they unfolded the paper. Rei was a very organized person, so their things were all set up perfectly in their pockets. The paper, which had been folded nicely, was a bright white color when Rei extended it to Mila. This was one thing she and Rei didn't have in common. Rei was neat and kept his things neat as well while Mila's papers ended up in a messy hap and were discolored from grime.

Mila took the paper from him. Her senses were scramming to her that this was some smart remark from Rei, but either way, she unfolded the paper and read it to herself:

 _Age three: Meet Digimon partners_

 _Age nine: Receive Digivices_

 _Age fourteen: Receive Crests of respective virtues_

 _Age sixteen: Learn to open Gate to the Digital World_

This confirmed to Mila that Rei had been doing this just to mess with her. She looked up at them, glaring unhappily. Rei took the paper back from her and folded it once again before returning it to their jacket pocket. "Do you understand now?" they asked.

Mila rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I get it. You can't do it. You don't need to drag my hopes and dreams through the mud that way, though," she muttered bitterly.

"I just figured that you needed a reminder. I know how much you want to break free from the plan," Rei said. "I don't blame you. I would like to go to the Digital World myself and learn more about the way that it works. Even my father only knows so much."

"We should leave you to your computer club meeting now," Saki told Rei. "Thank you for your time."

"It was no problem," Rei replied, showing small hints of a smile.

"Before you go, just answer me one more question," Mila said, grabbing their wrist before they could walk back into the computer room.

"What is it?" asked Rei.

"How did you know that I would be coming? I don't think we know each other well enough for you to know when I'm going to see you," Mila told him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Your brother told me. He can never resist telling me all about the stories your parents tell you," Rei said with a small smile. "Anyways, I should get going. I'll see you later."

As Rei descended back into the depths of the computer room, Saki turned to Mila. "I guess that's it. If they can't help us, I don't know anybody who can," Saki said. Deep down, they were happy about this. They didn't really want to go to the Digital World. It was dangerous there, and Saki had never been a fan of danger.

"We could always ask your cousin," Mila suggested. "She's a straight A student. Maybe she'll have some ideas."

Saki frowned. "She never does anything to do with the Digital World. You know this. She'd much rather write like her father does. The likelihood of her knowing anything is really low. Even if she does know something, she isn't going to just hand you the information. She doesn't want us involved in these things," they reminded Mila.

"The very least we can do is try. She's probably home by this point. Let's go and see her," Mila said.

A determined glimmer filled her eyes. Once again, Saki knew that arguing had no point. It was best to just agree for the good of them both. "Fine," they sighed. "Let's go talk to her and get this over with."

* * *

The house of Saki's cousin sat on the outskirts of town. It was a traditional style Japanese house made up of what appeared to Mila to be light tan wood. She skipped up to the front door and knocked her signature knock, one that most of the DigiDestined were well acquainted with.

Shockingly, the door was answered by Saki's elder cousin, Chisane "Chris" Takaishi. She rarely ever went to the door, so seeing her was a bit of a surprise. "Oh! Saki! Mila!" she gasped in shock. "I didn't know you would be coming over."

Chris's honey blonde hair was long, reaching her upper legs in curls. Her eyes were the same blue as Saki's, which made sense given that they were related. Bronze glasses framed her eyes. Chris had a light gray sweater on her shoulders with a turquoise shirt. A sea green scarf that reached her lower chest was wrapped around her neck. Her leggings and tall combat boots were both black.

"Hey, Chris," Saki said simply. "What are you up to?"

"I'm working on the draft for one of my newer stories. Sato is really excited for this next chapter. He's always been enthusiastic about these things," Chris replied.

Mila knew a bit about Chris and the things she got up to. She often wrote novels in her free time, even if none of them had been published yet. Chris took after her father in this way, as he was also a novelist. Her younger brother, Sato, was an extreme bookworm, but her stories were his favorites. He had likely become hooked on her current story and wanted her to write more, which was what she was doing at that moment.

"You'll have to let us read about what it is that you're writing one day," Saki said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but until then, I have a favor to ask," Mila cut in, getting a bit impatient with the small talk. She had never been the type to wait for a while before bringing up a subject that had to do with her.

"What is it?" Chris asked. She opened the door further to let Saki and Mila into the house.

"You already have your Crest, right?" Mila began. The schedule that Rei had given her said that the Crest came at age fourteen, and since that's how old Chris was, she automatically assumed she had one.

Chris nodded in response. She fished something out of her scarf and pulled it off of her head. Chris held up the object for Saki and Mila to see.

This object was small and pale yellow in color. A golden chain was attached to its top, which allows it to hang from Chris' neck. There was a symbol written on the front of it in a darker yellow shade. The back was covered in what appeared to be yellow data. Ones and zeros scrolled up and down the back of the Crest in a mad dash.

"Wow," Mila whispered, eyes wide in awe. She had heard that Chris had received her Crest the month before, the first one of the group to do so, but hadn't ever seen it in person. She reached out to touch it, only to be shocked by static electricity when her fingers did touch its surface. The electric discharge frightened her, making the goggle wearing girl jump. "What is this thing's problem? Does it have an attitude or something?"

Chris shook her head and looked at her Crest a bit closer. "No. It's an update Gennai made to the Crests this time around. Now, if somebody tries to touch it but it doesn't belong to them, they end up shocked so they won't do it again. He called it a defense mechanism," she explained. She grabbed the Crest's chain and pulled it on over her head. Once it was around her neck, she pulled her puffy curls out of the chain before tucking the Crest back into the depths of her scarf.

"That's so cool!" Mila exclaimed. "You got that on your fourteenth, right? What's the next thing to happen on a birthday DigiDestined related?"

Chris took a seat on the couch of her living room. Mila and Saki did the same, choosing to sit on her right. "We learn how to open the Gate to the Digital World at sixteen," she said.

"Did you happen to learn about how to open the Gate sooner?" Mila asked, praying that Chris came up with a positive answer.

"I'm afraid not. You know the rules," Chris told her.

"When you're old enough, can you take us with you to the Digital World?" Mila questioned. Chris was going to be able to open the gate sooner than she would, so if she could get Chris to agree to taking her along, she'd at least have something to look forward to.

"I'm not going to the Digital World when I'm old enough, Mila," Chris said, her mouth a thin line.

"Why not?" Mila interrogated. She would have guessed that Chris, a girl who writes stories about fantasy and adventure constantly, would have loved the Digital World almost as much as her.

"It's risky. I don't want to lose Patamon to the Digital World. I'm far happier just staying here." Chris began to store her partner Digimon, Patamon. He had been asleep on the arm of the couch, but in her questioning, Mila had failed to notice he was present.

A sigh escaped Mila's lips. "Thanks," she whispered. She walked for the door, Saki trailing after her. Saki waved at Mila as the two exited the house.

They walked for a few minutes in silence. "You seem down," commented Saki eventually.

"I guess I am," Mila muttered. "I really wanted to go there,"

"I don't know if this will help, but my dad is going to be working late tonight. Since my mom is out of town, I'm going to be staying with you tonight," Saki said with a small smile.

Mila couldn't help but smile as well. "Alright. I guess that sounds fun," she said. "Let's go pick up Gabumon from your place and head to my house. I can already hear the leftover pizza from last night calling my name."

* * *

The two arrived at Mila's apartment not long after leaving Chris to herself. Gabumon, Saki's partner Digimon, followed Saki and Mila in. "Here we are!" the Digimon cried out as he entered.

Agumon, Mila's partner and longtime best friend, waddled up to the brunette. "You're home!" he exclaimed merrily. He hugged her briefly. Mila hugged him back before patting him on the head with a smile.

"I wonder where your brother is," thought Saki aloud. Normally when they came over, Saki heard Xen Kamiya coming in from his room to greet them. The fact that Xen was so late was a bit concerning.

"He's over with the Kido family, I hear," Mila replied. The Kido family, which consisted of DigiDestined Mimi and Joe Kido along with their kids Everleigh and Haru, had been friends with Mila's family for years upon years. It didn't really surprise her when her parents told her that her brother was hanging out with Haru that morning.

"Do you think your parents are home?" Saki questioned next.

"They're not back yet."

The duo of humans and their Digimon partners turned to see Biyomon, the partner of Mila's mother, a woman named Sora. The pink bird walked up to the quartet. "Sora told me that she might be a bit late since she has to pick up Xen tonight after she's done with work," Biyomon went on.

"I guess we'll just have to set up in the meantime," Saki shrugged. They opened their backpack after taking it off and walked to Mila's room. Gabumon followed a few steps behind his partner.

"It's times like these when I'm glad to have a bunk bed," Mila commented, walking into her room after Saki. "I'll take top as usual."

Saki smiled to themselves. Ever since the Kamiya family had gotten the bunk bed, Mila had always had the top bunk at sleepovers. They were used to it by now, but they didn't mind. They preferred the bottom anyways.

Saki set the things from their backpack out on the bottom bunk with some help from Gabumon. They took a seat on the bed's surface next to Gabumon after they were done.

Two loud BEEPS filled the room. Saki gasped and reached down for their waistband. Mila did the same. They knew what that noise meant. It indicated that the Digivices, which they had possessed since the age of nine, were going off.

Mila and Saki pulled their Digivices off of their waistbands and looked at them. Their partners watched in shock. Biyomon and Agumon, the one that belonged at the side of Mila's father, walked into the bedroom as well. The two digital monsters had heard the beeping noises and had come to see what was amiss.

The screens of the Digivices lit up in perfect unison. They were called D-Scanners, which made them a more advanced model than those that belonged to the DigiDestined of the past. Since only this type of Digivice was going off, whatever was happening had to have been an exclusive occurrence to the newer variation.

A monotone voice spoke from the other side. Mila had no idea if it was a male, female, or something in between, but she listened on anyways. She figured that it had to have been important somehow.

"Something is coming," the voice began. The voice was devoid of all emotions. Mila had no idea how she should have felt about that, but she was a bit afraid at that moment regardless of how she was supposed to feel.

"A great evil is on the horizon. If it is not put to a stop soon, the world will be consumed in destruction and unimaginable pain. The new DigiDestined... I know that you are listening to me right now. Please listen to what I am telling you and understand that your parents can no longer protect the Digital World. It is all up to you now. I believe in you."

Another pair of beeping sounds erupted from the Digivices. The screens went dull not long after, leaving nothing more than the gray screen that both had seen countless times.

They didn't speak, but both could assume why was going through thread of the other child. Both of their assumptions were correct no matter how one chose to look at it.

The words 'What in hell just happened?' were in their thoughts, but sadly enough, neither one had an answer to that question.

* * *

Saki and Mila weren't the only ones who had heard this message. All of the D-Scanners belonging to the DigiDestined had played the same words spoken by the same voice. The fifteen devices across the cities of Odaiba and Japan had beeped in sync and told their owners of the dangers that were coming their way.

Rei, who was back home by that point, stood in the doorway that led into their room when the message began to play. They had learned much about the Digital World from their father, but never had they heard anything about the Digivices beginning to speak to their owners.

They took a seat on their bed once it was over. Their partner, a Tentomon, had heard the entire thing. He flew up so that he was also sitting on the bed. "Do you have any idea what just happened?" the red Digimon asked of his partner. He had assumed that Rei had at least some idea of what had just taken place, as Rei was the smartest person that he knew.

"I'm afraid that I have no idea," Rei said quietly, their head hanging slightly. "If I had an idea, I'd tell you for sure."

"We should tell your father about it," suggested Tentomon. "He should be home soon, correct?"

Rei nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure that he has some concept of what just took place," they told their partner. While they didn't want to admit it, they were a bit afraid that their father wouldn't know what was going on. It was entirely possible that Izzy would have no clue, and if that was the case, then Rei had no idea what they were supposed to do.

* * *

Another person who just so happened to hear the message was Chris. She had been sitting on the couch, laptop in her lap. Patamon slept through the entire exchange. He didn't even stir when the Digivice went on.

Since it seemed to her that the partners of her parents were helping Sato, Chris was left with time alone to think things over on her own. There had to be some explanation for the D-Scanner going off all of a sudden. Chris had never been too involved with the Digital World like Mila or Rei, but she still knew that this meant that something was wrong.

A frown appeared on her lips. "Maybe I should ask my parents when they get back," she whispered. It was around 5:00, which meant that her parents were going to be home in about half an hour. Until that point rolled around, she could try and come up with an explanation.

Chris had no idea how she was going to come up with said explanation, but she knew that it was much more productive to think of something than sit around like it never happened.

That being said, she got to thinking about what could have just happened.

* * *

Mila didn't touch her Digivice for a full two minutes after the message ended. She didn't know if it was safe or not. Eventually, she got over her fears and loved it from her bed. She looked it with a frown. There didn't appear to be any physical changes made when the odd message came through.

"Do you know what that meant?" Gabumon eventually asked.

Saki shook their head. "I have no idea," they admitted. "If I knew, I'd tell you for sure."

"I wonder if that happened to Tai and Sora," Tai's Agumon wondered aloud. "They took their Digivices with them to work, so I guess we won't know until they get home."

"Let's go and get a snack for now," suggested Saki. It was clear to Mila that they were just trying to get the strange message off of their mind. She knew how Saki worked well enough to see right through that.

As Saki walked from the room, Mila looked at her Digivice. Was this possibly a sign that she wouldn't have to wait three years until she was taught to open the Gate and go to the other world? If so, she didn't like it.

Suddenly, Mila didn't want to go to the Digtal World as much anymore, and it was all because of that stupid message.

* * *

 _ **With many struggles, I manage to get this up and running!**_

 _ **I had a bunch of problems with my computer crashing while I tried to publish this, but I think that I finally fixed it. Thank goodness.**_

 ** _If you couldn't already tell, this is an epilogue rewrite. I've been wanting to do one of these with the old 02 epilogue for ages since I hated the way that the season ended. In this, my favorite ships are canon (so Taiora, Jomi, Takari, and Daiken) and the kids are of my own creation. I'm already preferring this to the canon epilogue and we've barely gotten started._**

 ** _Hopefully, I'll be able to get the cover up without my computer crashing, but in the meantime, enjoy this first chapter!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	2. 2) Eight Shadows, Eight Nightmares

Morning came all too soon for Mila. She stretched her arms up as her alarm buzzed spastically on her desk. "Saki, can you get that?" she groaned.

The blonde child on the bottom bunk stretched their arm out and slammed it down on the alarm. The device instantly fell silent. Saki sat up and rubbed their eyes. "I guess that it's time to get ready for school," they said.

Mila grunted unhappily. She had gone through quite a bit of trouble trying to get to sleep the night before. After seeing the Digivice beep and blip the way it had, sleep had danced away from her grasp for two hours before she finally dozed off. She wasn't at all ready to face the day, but at the very least, it was a Friday. That was always good.

Saki got up first and went to the bathroom. They had always been a morning person. Mila envied them for this at times. She pushed her jealousy away and hopped down from her bed. "Wake up, Agumon," she called to the reptile still up on her top bunk.

The orange Digimon sat up not long after. Mila could sense that he wanted to get up about as much as she did. "Come on. You can at least see me off to school before you go back to bed for the day," she said. She knew how lazy Agumon was. After she left the house, the chances of him staying consciousness were incredibly low.

Agumon climbed down the ladder from the top bunk to the floor. He turned to Gabumon, who was still fast asleep on the bottom bunk. "Should we wake him?" he asked of his partner.

"Probably. I bet that Uncle Matt is going to come in later today to pick him up for Saki," Mila replied. She grabbed her clothes for the day and her goggles before walking from the room. She walked into the bathroom as Saki came out, hair brushed and changed into their outfit for the day.

The blonde walked into the kitchen. "Good morning, Aunt Sora," they said, running their fingers through their blonde hair one final time.

Mila's mother, Sora, shot Saki a small smile. "I'm glad to see you're awake," she said pleasantly. "Is Mila up?"

"Miraculously, yes," Saki replied, a bit of humor in their voice.

Sora laughed slightly at Saki's remark. "Pancakes are on the counter," she said as she picked up her purse from where it was perched on the table. "I have to get going early. There's a big meeting this morning."

"Good luck," Saki told her politely as she took a seat at the bar. They took one of the pancakes from the stack of ten and placed it onto another plate that sat nearby.

Sora put her coat on as Mila slid into the room. "Morning, Mom," she said before dashing over to the counter.

"What's with the hurry?" Biyomon questioned.

"I have to get a few of these pancakes before the others get down here. You know how Agumon is with the food," Mila told her.

"This morning, you won't have to worry about Xen. He spent the night with Haru and Everleigh last night," Sora said.

"Sweet! More for me!" Mila exclaimed merrily. She grabbed a pancake and took a bite out of it. Saki had been surprised the first time that they learned of Mila's habit of rarely using silverware, but these days, they didn't even look Mila's way. Instead, they cut off another piece of pancake and stuffed it into their mouth.

The smaller Agumon of the household came waddling in not long after. Mila picked up a pancake and tossed it to him. Miraculously, Agumon caught it, though it wasn't catching necessarily. The pancake ended up being impaled on one of his claws. The reptile Digimon shrugged it off and took a bite out of it anyways.

Mila reached for her second pancake as Gabumon came in. He walked over to where Mila and Saki sat. His human partner grabbed a pancake for him and handed it to him.

As Gabumon began to eat the pancake up, Sora waved from the doorway. "I'll see you later!" she exclaimed.

"Bye!" Mila called around the food in her mouth.

"We should get going soon," Saki said. "I bet that the others are going to want to talk to us about the message that came to us through our Digivices last night."

Mila sighed. "Yeah. I guess so," she mumbled.

"You aren't wearing your Digivice," Agumon commented, noticing that Mila's belt was barren.

Mila gulped down the pancake piece that was in her mouth. "Yeah. I didn't really want to wear it," she admitted. "The message from last night freaked me out, Agumon. Do you really blame me for wanting to leave it at home for once?"

"You remember what they told us when we got our Digivices, right?" Saki asked.

Mila sighed and nodded. "Yeah. They said that we shouldn't let them out of our sight. There are bad people out there who might try and take them," she said, her mind being cast to the day that her parents had given her the Digivice that she owned. It had been her ninth birthday, just as the schedule had dictated.

"Exactly. I think that it would be best if you take it to school today," Saki told their companion, cutting up a piece of pancake as they spoke.

"Fine. I'll wear it," Mila grumbled.

"Maybe something else exciting will happen today too," Agumon told Mila, hoping to encourage her to wear it further.

"Maybe it'll lead us to the Digital World," Mila grinned.

"I'm starting to think that you're a bit obsessed," Saki told her as they dropped down from the barstool and started for Mila's room to retrieve their Digivices.

"Even so, it's a natural obsession. I'm sure that some of the other people are into it, too. Like Tanaka. I'm sure that she wants to go there just as much as I do," Mila called after Saki.

Saki rolled their eyes. "Tanaka is probably crazy, Mila. Saying that Tanaka loves it like you do means that you're probably crazy too."

Mila sighed. "Stop being right, Saki," she muttered.

* * *

The man in black took large strides across the room. "I'm sure that you want to know why I've called you all here today," he declared, turning to the other people in the room.

Three other men and three women stood on the other side of the room. One of the women, one with light brown hair, huffed. "Yeah, actually. We were wondering why you called all of us out from under our rocks to meet up."

"We don't even know one another," another one of the men said. "Why would we meet up if we don't even know each other's names?"

"Because you all have something in common with me," the first man in black said. "You want to destroy a few of the kids who walk through this city like they own the place. The... The special ones."

"Which special ones? The rich snobs or some other group?" asked another one of the women.

"The DigiDestined," the man said, practically spitting out the word. "I'm sure that you all have heard of them."

"Of course we have!" shrieked the first woman. "I think that they all deserve to die!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure that everybody has heard of them here. That has to be the reason that this guy called us here," one of the men spoke up.

"As a matter of fact, it is. I was wondering if you all would be willing to help me out," the man in black said.

"Why should we help you when we don't even know who you are?" the first woman asked angrily.

"My name is not important. What is important is that you all have something useful. You all have grudges against that group. I need you all to help me fight against them and ultimately bring them to their end," the man in black said.

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked the third woman of the group.

"I need you all to become DigiDestined yourself so that you'll have the power to destroy them," the man in black declared with a smirk.

The first woman rolled her eyes. "Are you bat shit crazy? Jesus, everybody knows that you can't just 'become' a DigiDestined."

"I have figured out a way to do that," the man in black announced. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small bottle. A deep green liquid sloshed around inside. "Even if this liquid looks rather unpleasant, it will help us take our revenge on the DigiDestined and eventually bring them down."

"What does it do?" the third man asked.

"What even is it?" the second woman interrogated.

"Why do you need us when you have that liquid?" the first man questioned.

The man in black swatted his hand through the air, as if batting the questions away. "This is Artificia. It gives somebody the powers that DigiDestined possess. I need you all because this liquid is useful without a person to use it."

The man in black suddenly pointed into the shadows of the room. A fourth woman had been hiding there this entire time. "Come out. I will test it out on you first," he declared.

The fourth woman walked out, not daring to speak a word. The man in black grabbed a small syringe from inside of his jacket and poured some of the Artificia liquid into it. Afterwards, he screwed the lid back onto the bottle and tucked it away once again.

The fourth woman rolled up her sleeve to expose her arm. The man in black positioned the syringe before pushing it into her arm. The woman flinched slightly, but seconds later, she was back to normal.

The man in black snapped. A curtain on the back wall of the room fell down and revealed a creature standing there. Eyes glimmered in the shadows. A symbol appeared on the arm of the fourth woman. She stepped forward with a small smile. "I understand now what that liquid does," she smirked. She reached out for the Digimon in the shadows. "I'm glad that you have introduced me to the most important figure in my life."

The woman stepped closer to the Digimon, taking its hand. "You have introduced me to my partner," she said with a smirk as power surged through her body at the Digimon's touch.

* * *

When Mila and Saki arrived at the school, there was a small group of children already gathered there. They recognized two of them as Chris and Rei. There were around four others there already.

"I bet that they got started without us," Saki heard Mila grumble. "It's just like them to do this to us."

"In all fairness, we were late," Saki reminded her.

When Mila and Saki slid into the conversation, a short boy was speaking. It was a boy with honey blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a pastel yellow jacket over a pale green shirt. He also had jeans on along with a pink scarf tied around his neck. He had tennis shoes on his feet that were light yellow and green. A silver whistle was wrapped around his neck. A Digivice was attached to his belt.

"You have to wonder if that message doesn't mean something huge," the boy was saying. Mila instantly recognized as Chris's little brother, Sato Takaishi. "In books, this is when the protagonist starts getting involved in incredibly dangerous things."

"Our life isn't a story," Mila cut in.

"Oh! Mila! Saki! You're here!" another person exclaimed. This was Haruhi "Haru" Kido, another one of the DigiDestined. They were Saki's age, though they certainly were much shorter than Saki was.

Haru had brown eyes and short strawberry blonde hair that was tied into a small ponytail. They wore a salmon colored shirt with an orange bandanna that was tied around their neck. They had jeans that were salmon at the top but faded out to orange, yellow, and finally, green. They had green trainers on their feet as well.

"I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show," Chris said, pulling her Digivice out of her pocket. She fiddled around with it for a few seconds before looking back up to Mila and Saki. "You two got the message, right?"

"Yeah. That weird speech from that even weirder voice," Mila replied. "I'm pretty sure that all of us got it."

"Not all of us," Rei cut in. "Only us new DigiDestined did. My father never got any message. My guess is that it had something to do with us having D-Scanners."

"I-I bet so..." came a quiet and timid whisper. Mila looked at who had spoken. It had been Everleigh Kido, Haru's older sister. Despite being the older out of the two, Everleigh was far less experienced when it came to these things. She had received her partner Gomamon five years late, so that was to be expected.

Everleigh's hair was strawberry blonde like Haru's but it faded out to a navy blue at the edges. She wore a salmon shirt like Haru, but the sleeves on hers was short. There was a neon green belt wrapped around her waist. She had a navy blue skirt that reached her knees. A pink bow was tied into her hair. She had knee high white socks on with short gray boots. Her eyes were a deep blue color.

"Yeah. That's the only explanation that I can think of," Saki agreed.

"I hope that this means that this starts our adventures in the Digital World!" Mila exclaimed. "I've been waiting for this my entire life! Imagine how wonderful it's going to be. We're going to be doing the same sort of thing that our parents did back when they were our age. That sounds amazing to me."

"I agree," nodded the final four of the newcomers.

Mila looked to him. She instantly recognized her younger brother, Xerikane "Xen" Kamiya. His red hair was slightly spiked as it always had been. His brown eyes looked the same as Mila's did. He had a red shirt with short sleeves. The Crest of Love, which just so happened to be his virtue, was printed on the front of his shirt in orange. He had red tennis shoes and yellow trousers on. He had pink wristbands on either hand.

"It's going to be great," Mila said dreamily, practically absorbed in her own daydreams by this point.

"I don't think that we should let our anticipation to go there get the best of us," Chris cautioned her. "We don't know what's waiting for us over there. For all we know, we aren't even meant to go over there. I'm personally rooting for that option."

"I-I don't want to go either... It's going to be dangerous over there," Everleigh said next.

"Am I the only one who wants to experience the wonder that is being a DigiDestined?" Mila asked, exasperation obvious in her tone.

"I guess so," Rei shrugged.

"I have other things to focus on," Haru agreed, wrapping an arm around Rei. "Such as how cute Rei is! How adorable!"

Rei looked away, doing their best to ignore Haru's flirts. Xen couldn't help but giggle at Haru's attempts. He opened his mouth to say something about it, but the bell's shrill cry cut him off. "I guess that we'll have to come back and talk about this a little bit later," he said with a small sigh.

"I guess so," Mila sighed. "I guess that I'll see you all later on."

The group's members all went their separate ways. Mila walked to her first hour, which was history. She couldn't help but feel odd being with them all. She was the only one who really wanted to go to the Digital World. Weren't they curious about what went on over there on the other side? Apparently not. She wished that at least one other person would come around to the idea soon. She needed to talk to somebody about her fantasies, after all.

* * *

Almost everybody had been given the injection after an hour had passed. The man in black walked over to a nearby pitcher. He filled up his jar once again, as it had been emptied after injecting Artificia into the seven others. He had not yet received the injection, but he didn't want it. He wanted to save it for the others who truly needed it.

"So now that we all have Digimon, what's the plan?" asked the first woman out of the group. A tattoo had appeared on her arm where the needle had pierced her skin. It was a circular symbol. All of the others had them as well. It was a sign that they had received the Artificia and had gotten a partner Digimon.

"The plan is for you all to fan out. You'll all have headquarters scattered throughout the city of Odaiba as well as the cities around it. We could easily strike now, since the DigiDestined are weak, but what fun would that be?" asked the man in black. He laughed to himself.

The others all laughed along with him. The man held up his hand not long after to cease their glee. "Now, there's something that I wish to do. It's rather important. In fact, it's going to be our first move against those bratty little children," he said.

"What is it?" asked one of the women.

"You see... I'm looking forward to sending out one of the other Digimon that I have captured," the man in black said. "A Champion level. This is just to toy with them, of course. I believe that they will rather enjoy this. Hopefully, this will strike fear into their hearts."

"I have one question," cut in the second man of the bunch.

"And what might that be?" the man in black questioned, whirling around to face the one who had spoken.

"We're a group now, correct?"

The man in black replied by nodding. "Yes. What of it?" he asked.

"What's our name?" the second man inquired. "Most groups such as this one have a name. What is ours?"

The man in black smirked. "I've already thought of that. In fact, I've had it worked out for quite some time now," he replied.

"Then why didn't you just tell us?" the first woman asked angrily. "You can't keep holding information away from us. We're a group now. Groups are supposed to work together to take down their enemies."

"I didn't bring it up because nobody asked," the man in black said, his voice easy. He wasn't at all threatened by the first woman's dissatisfaction.

"Just go on and tell us what the hell it is," sighed the third man. "We don't have all day to be sitting around here and talking like nothing is going on in our lives."

The man in black nodded. "I agree. We do have much more important things to address," he said. "I'll go on and tell you what our name is. I'm sure that you all will like it, assuming that you're into mysterious things such as our title."

"Stop with the small talk and just tell us already!" snapped the first man of the group.

The man in black sighed and shook his head. "Such impatience," he muttered to himself, as if making note of it. He shrugged off the thought and rose his head high, ready to make the declaration of the group's title. "We are going to be known as the Eight Shadows from this moment forward. You could alternatively call us the Eight Nightmares. It's really up to you. Choose whichever name you prefer."

"I like that," the first woman said quietly. "It makes us sound mysterious."

"Exactly. We also sound rather deadly, if you ask me," smirked one of the men. "I like it when we sound deadly that way."

"Yeah. When those little kids hear it, I'm sure that they're all going to go running back to their mommies and daddies," the second woman taunted.

"Now that we've made our name clear, let's get back to the subject at hand. I have prepared a Champion level Digimon to send after them. This creature is going to cause quite the trouble for them all, let me tell you. By the end of the day, they're going to fear the Eight Shadows, the Eight Nightmares," the man in black declared.

"How are they going to know who we are?" asked the fourth woman, who had been silent up until that point in time.

"This Digimon is no normal Digimon. In fact, he's going to be our messenger to tell the DigiDestined about our existence. They'll know instantly that their 25 years worth of peace are up. It's about time that something interesting happened anyways," smirked the man in black. He placed two fingers into his mouth and whistled.

A dog Digimon came padding into the room. "You called?" he asked.

"I want you to go and face them now," the man in black replied. "Your time has arrived, Dobermon."

The dog Digimon, Dobermon as the man in black had called him, nodded. "I will do just as you wish."

Dobermon backed out of the room before leaving entirely. The man in black faced his companions once again. "It's going to be quite some time before we can actually begin to fight them. The Aritificia has created your bond that is needed to be DigiDestined and partner, but there is still much work to be done. You need to gain the power necessary to take down your enemies. It's not going to be easy, in fact, it'll be just the opposite. You all are going to need to train so that you're ready whenever the DigiDestined are ready to meet their doom," he declared to his group.

"How long is this going to take?" the first woman moaned unhappily. "I want to start knocking some heads now."

"It's going to be around a month, according to my predictions. However, you won't have to wait too long to begin fighting against them. In fact, I have everything already plotted out. You're going to be the first one to strike against the enemy," the man in black said. "I know what's coming. I know that you have the power to take at least one of those brats down soon. I believe in you."

The woman smiled to herself. "I'm glad that I'll be going first. I'm not going to wait too long to strike anyways. I've never been the type to follow the rules," she said.

"Are we done here? I have better things to do than be here," the fourth woman cut in. "I want to go on and train with my new partner, if that's alright."

"I was just about to dismiss you all for that anyways," the man in black said. He clapped his hands together. "You all may go. I'll see you back here at five tonight. We can discuss our progress then."

Everybody took their leave. The man in black was the only one left eventually. He crossed the room and approached a table nearby. He messed with the files that sat on top of it and pulled one out.

"I'm going to need to get rid of the oldest two first," he whispered. "Before they realize the powers of their Crests. If they do that, they're bound to find the Megidris not long after. I can't let that happen." The man picked up a small bottle from the table. His hand tightly wrapped around it. "It all ends by the time March rolls around. Everything will be over... And Digimon will rule the world once and for all."

* * *

Back at the school in Odaiba, it was around lunch time. The DigiDestined kids were all gathered at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. Mila sat down after getting her lunch. She was the last one to do so since her teacher from the class before, which had been math, had kept her in late.

"Now that we're all here, let's start talking about what we think the message means," Sato suggested.

"I thought that we already went over this. It means that our adventures in the Digital World are going to kick off soon, but unfortunately, the chances of you all taking advantage of that are slim," Mila muttered unhappily.

"Some of us just don't want to get involved. I believe that it's fine if we have different opinions on things. I mean, hey, some of you guys think guys are nice, and I want to kiss a girl. Nobody objected to that, so why are we fighting about this?" Chris asked. She took a bite of the apple that had previously been sitting before her.

Mila sighed. "You liking girls is different, Chris. You liking girls has nothing to do with potentially saving the world," she told the older girl.

"This probably isn't a 'saving the world' deal," Rei reminded her. "For all we know, that message that we received was nothing more than a fluke. It's probably going to be for the best if we just forget about it and move on with our lives as usual."

"You know, for being the logical thinker of the group, you certainly aren't being very logical right now," Mila told them. "This is our destiny. As DigiDestined, we're meant to save the world when destruction seems imminent. You all know this. Hell, from the day that we were all born, we were told that we were going to save the world one day."

"And since the day that we were born, we have seen nothing to prove that," Saki said. "As much as I hate to say it, Mila, there's nothing going on right now that requires our attention. Nobody is in danger. Nobody's dying. Everything is fine."

Mila sighed. She knew that she had already lost this argument. Nothing that she could say could possibly turn it around. "Yeah... Fine..." she mumbled unhappily.

"It's a Friday, you know," Haru cut in, changing the subject with perfect timing.

"Yeah. What about it?" Xen asked, taking a bite of his food.

"We could hang out tonight. If we called, we might even be able to get Kyon and Miyara out here," Haru said. "We'll have our first official DigiDestined meeting in years, even if there really isn't a purpose behind it."

"I think that we should have Kyon and Miyara over. We all know how Chris feels about Miyara," Saki said with a small smirk.

"Shut up!" Chris shrieked. She hit Saki's arm with the back of her hand and looked away with a frown. Saki giggled to themselves as Chris spoke again. "Nobody knows how I feel about Miyara. She just so happens to be a very close friend of mine. It's not like I have a crush on her or anything."

"Yeah, because it's so natural that you happened to tell us that you were a lesbian after spending years with Miyara as her best friend," Saki replied. "That's totally normal."

"Let's just drop the subject already," Chris told her cousin. She stared at her apple for a few seconds before mumbling a few things. "Me? Like Miyara Motomiya? As if." She took a bite of her apple once again.

Nobody in the group had the chance to say a word about Chris's love interests. A series of screams cut them all off. They all looked up to see students fleeing every which way around the cafeteria, obviously having been frightened quite badly by something that had entered the large room.

"What in the world is all that noise about?" Haru asked, rising to their feet.

"W-what if somebody b-broke into the school?!" Everleigh asked, her voice overflowing with fear. "I-I hope that's not the case!"

"The school's staff would have told us if that was what happened," Mila told her. "I think that it must be something else. It just as to be."

Around a hundred of the students in the cafeteria bolted for the back corner where the DigiDestined were sitting. Chris hugged Sato so that he didn't end up being trampled by the crowds. The eight of them all huddled together to avoid the human contact that would come with the others entering their space.

"There's a dog in here!" came a yell from one of the students.

A bunch of the students all flooded out through the back doors. The DigiDestined tried to see through the crowed, though it was quickly made clear that such a task was much easier said than done.

Soon enough, all of the students in the way had left the cafeteria through the back exit. The DigiDestined were the only ones left. Saki pointed for the door, as if trying to tell the others that it was time to split, but none of them noticed the gesture. They were far too focused on the creature that had entered the cafeteria.

It was a black dog, and a large one at that. Mila pulled out her Digivice. She couldn't exactly put a finger on it, but something screamed to her that this creature was a Digimon of some sort.

A profile of the creature popped up on the screen. "Dobermon. A Champion level Digimon," she told her companions. She would have said something about how she told the others that destiny was coming for them all like she had anticipated, but she couldn't focus enough to do so. Mila's heart was pounding so loudly that the sound was practically drowning out all other sound.

"Who here wants to guess that thing is here for us?" Sato asked as he clung tightly to his big sister.

"I'm pretty sure that we're all positive of that," whispered Everleigh.

"We just need to fight him off," Mila said, her hands clenching into fists.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Saki asked of Mila. "It's going to be nearly impossible without or Digimon here, Mila. We're as good as dead."

* * *

 _ **Hopefully, it works this time.**_

 _ **This chapter has not agreed with me at all. This is the fourth time I've tried to upload it. Hopefully, it won't turn into computer code this time like it has in the past.**_

 _ **Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed. I'll start posting review responses next chapter, so you have that to look forward to.**_

 _ **And with that, I'll be off!**_

 _ **-Digital**_


	3. 3) The Power of the Data Scan

Dobermon stalked forward. He was growling under his breath, sending saliva everywhere. Sato attached himself firmly to Chris's arm. She didn't even try to ask him to back off so that she could feel her fingers again. She was far too concerned with the dog that was coming towards them with deadly intentions.

"Hey! Sato!"

The group of eight all turned to see a small group of creatures coming nearer. There were three of them. One looked like a small puppy, one like a flying hamster, and the final like a furry seal. To most, they would seem like nothing more than cute stuffed animals, but to the DigiDestined, they meant they were saved from a brutal and bloody death.

"Gomamon!" Everleigh cried out as the three creatures bounded up to their partners. She crouched down and scooped up her partner from the ground. Sato and Chris did the same with their own partners, Salamon and Patamon respectively.

"We heard screaming and got down out of our tree to come and help!" Gomamon told Everleigh. "Who's the creep over there?"

"His name is Dobermon," Sato piped in. "And apparently, he has a bone to pick with the eight of us kids..."

"I always knew that this would happen sooner or later," Salamon whispered from Sato's arms.

"How do we stop him?" Mila asked, her hands clenched into fists. She regretted leaving Agumon at home. She was sure that Saki, Rei, Haru, and Xen were regretting leaving their partners behind for the day as well. Eight Rookies would have stood a much better chance against a Champion than just three.

"We fight him," Patamon replied. "Can I do it?"

Chris stared down at him with a frown. "I don't know... You could get hurt," she said nervously. "I don't want you, or any of the others, for that matter, to end up in trouble over this."

"We don't have a choice," Mila told her. "Just let this all happen. It'll be fine. He's alone, and he's only got one level on them. Don't worry about it."

"I'm afraid that I'm going to worry about it no matter what," Chris said with a small sigh. Even so, she let Patamon fly free from her arms and towards Dobermon.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon exclaimed. He sucked in a large quantity of air before puffing it out at Dobermon.

The condensed air hit him straight in the face. The dog Digimon growled at Patamon angrily. He went to bite him from the sky, but Patamon just flew a little bit higher up.

Gomamon came into the battle next. He snuck up on Dobermon from behind and swiped his claws against the dog's back legs. Since there were no fish in the immediate area, then he was going to have to resort to close up combat.

Dobermon shrieked in anger and whirled around to face him. "You-!" he screeched angrily at Gomamon. He raised a paw and stepped on one of Gomamon's front legs, making the smaller Digimon cry out in pain.

"Gomamon!" Everleigh cried. She went to run over to her partner, but Saki grabbed her arm and held her back. "L-let me go! He needs my help!"

"He's tough, Everleigh. He's a Digimon. He can take it. You, however, are a person and won't be able to take whatever Dobermon has to dish out," Saki reminded her. "Just watch for a moment. I think that the three of them can take it."

Sato knew Saki well. Since they were cousins, he knew that Saki tended to lie from time to time so that people wouldn't freak out. He gulped down his fear. He knew that the fight would be a bunch easier if he just relaxed and listened to Saki, even if they were just putting on a brave face.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon exclaimed again. He released yet another puff of air at Dobermon.

The Digimon glared at Patamon from below. "You're going to pay for that!" he snarled. He jumped into the air, tackling Patamon to the ground. He pinned the creature down by his wings and raised a paw to strike.

Gomamon came to the rescue once again. He hurled himself at the front right leg of Dobermon, the one that was holding up his front side. Gomamon also snagged Patamon up into his arms while he went by.

Dobermon went down, his snout hitting the ground in the blink of an eye. "You're all brats!" he exclaimed angrily, spitting out the word as if it was poison.

"You're the bratty one, showing up and scaring kids for no reason!" Salamon exclaimed in a scolding manner.

Dobermon laughed. "Perhaps I do have a reason, puppy," he said gruffly before approaching the smaller creature. He went to attack her, but she dashed out of his path before he got the chance.

"Petty Punch!" cried Salamon. She lunged at Dobermon and punched him multiple times in the head after landing on the back his neck.

It didn't take long for Dobermon to buck her off. Salamon flew through the air and hit the wall. A dent was made where the puppy hit.

Sato broke free of Chris and ran over to her. "Are you okay?!" he cried, picking the small creature up. He began to stroke her face, which had been cut on a brick that stuck out on the wall.

"I-I need to fight him off...!" Salamon whispered, determination in her voice. "I'm not going to let him hurt you or any of the others!"

"It's too dangerous," insisted Sato. "The others can handle it! I believe in them! You need to relax with me!"

Salamon shook her head before jumping down from Sato's arms. She bounded back towards the fight.

Gomamon had scratched Dobermon once again, which had enraged the dog and made him feel the need to kick Gomamon into a vending machine. The glass on the front of it was completely shattered. Gomamon crawled out from the inside of it, looking dizzy and out of it. "You can't... You can't get rid of me that easily..." he said, though it was obvious that this fight was taking it out of him.

"I'm getting worried... This guy is strong. What if they can't do it?" asked Mila.

"Have some faith in them, Mila," Saki told her. "It's going to be distracting for them if we cloud their minds with fear that they're going to fail."

"Fine..." Mila whispered. "I just wish that this guy would get thrown down and stay down for once... He sure is the stubborn type of creature... I don't like it at all."

* * *

"How are things going?"

One of the women walked into the room once again. "It sounds to me like something good is going down," she said with a small smirk.

"It's all up to perspective," the man in black said lazily. "If you think that it's going well, it is."

The man in black had secretly set up a camera within the cafeteria of the school the DigiDestined went to. He had been using it to spy on them for ages. It had proven itself to be quite useful in the past. For example, it had told him about the past of the DigiDestined Everleigh, which had led to him meeting a few of his allies. Now, it was showing him the fight that could very well decide the future of the organization.

The woman looked at the small screen nearby. It was showing what the camera was recording. It was all live from what she could tell. The woman watched as Gomamon was thrown across the cafeteria and slammed into the vending machines. Salamon came stumbling into the fight not long after, obviously drained from Dobermon's last hit. Even Patamon was looking a bit tired from everything that was happening.

"Looks to me like we're wiping the floor with them," the woman said with a small smirk. "Even if things are going well in that way, I don't really like it."

"And why not?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow her way. Was she possibly showing hints of rebellion? If so, then he was going to quell the rebellion no matter what the cost was. He wouldn't stand for his own teammates going against him at one of the least opportune times possible.

"If they all fall in this battle, then the rest of us don't get to have any fun in destroying them," the woman explained. "I want to see some of those pathetic little kids crumble, you know. And I want to see it happen by my hand and in person."

"There's one of those kids that you want alive. I've heard about your past with the DigiDestined," the man in black said. "It'll be rather sweet when it finally does come to pass that you kill off a few of them and capture the last one. With a bit of persuasion, we could turn her into one of us."

"Maybe," the woman smirked. "It all depends on what happens in the moment."

"Speaking of in the moment, you had better go and continue your training. We're meeting up with the others in two hours and I can tell that you need a bit more work time with your partner. You're never going to off some of those children if you don't train," the man in black told her.

"Alright," the woman said with a sigh. "I'll go and train, but only if you promise to tell us every juicy detail of this fight whenever we meet up later tonight. I'm sure that the others are curious."

The man in black nodded her way as she left him in peace. He preferred to be alone. Having allies was nice, sure, but in his opinion, it was a bit overrated. Why would he want to have others by his side, others who could potentially betray him, when he could just as easily be alone?

One of the reasons that the man in black preferred being alone was because it was easier to plot when alone. Thinking up dastardly concepts was much easier when he wasn't being pestered by one person or another, wanting this or that of him. Silence brought its own sort of companionship to him, the type that included hearing screams of agony in the back of his mind...

He picked up a small paper from the desk nearby as the battle ensued on the TV near him. He could always rewind things and watch it all later. There was no real harm in doing that since he'd have time when the school was empty later in the day and the camera wasn't recording anything impressive.

The man looked through the paper. He had a list written on it in a code only he understood. Not even his allies had a clue as to what it all meant. It was strictly his business, and he intended for it to stay that way until the day everything unfolded right before his very eyes.

The first line talked about the Dobermon fight that was going on at the school on the other side of the camera. He had thought up that ages ago, back whenever this plan was still in its beta phases. It was just as important then as it had been now.

There were a few more lines of harmless little fights that the had plotted out. They took the course of a month to complete. Afterwards, he was planning on having her, the first woman out of the group, strike. She had always been eager to take down some of those kids. While she was nowhere near the strongest, she had a fury that burned deeper than the rest of the group's members, a fire that had been steadily growing for around fifteen years.

He set the paper back down and turned to the fight once again. He could see a bright flash of light. Something was happening right before his very eyes.

And he had the assumption that whatever it was had no place in his plans.

* * *

The Digimon were exhausted.

They had been fighting Dobermon for around twenty minutes now. Patamon couldn't even keep himself aloft anymore. Gomamon had fallen unconscious around two minutes before after badly hitting his head on one of the windows.

Only Salamon was really in a fighting state at that point, and even she wasn't the strongest. Her legs were shaky, and she was having trouble standing without falling forward.

Dobermon was as ready to fight as he had been the entire time. "Is that really all that you've got?" he taunted. "You're weaker than I thought."

"I'm not weak!" Salamon retorted angrily. She ran at him once again. "Petty Punch!"

Dobermon was barely feeling her small little attacks. He raised his right front leg and batted her away.

The small Digimon slid across the ground, grunting in pain as she did so. Bruises littered her form by this point. She looked ready to give up.

"You can't give into him! I believe in you!" Sato suddenly cried out at his partner. "I know that you can defeat him if you really put your mind to it! He's not going to triumph over us! You can do it, Salamon!"

Chris nudged Saki and pointed to something on Sato's waistband. It was his Digivice. The D-Scanner had begun to glow in a dull pink light. "Something's happening!" she hissed to her cousin.

"I think that this is... This is going to save us," Haru whispered, entranced by the light on Sato's D-Scanner.

"Get up and show him what you've got! Prove to him that you're more than just a Rookie! You're the strongest Digimon that I know!" Sato continued to cry, encouraging his partner more and more with every word.

The Digivice suddenly emitted two small beeps. Sato gasped and pulled it from his waist. The screen was alive with pink data. Zeroes and ones scrolled up and down the screen at a rapid pace.

Sato stared at it for a second. Suddenly, he noticed that something had appeared before him. It was a little square made up of pink data. Sato grabbed it from thin air and held it out before his Digivice.

"I think that data is going to make Salamon Digivolve!" Mila exclaimed. "Try and scan it with your D-Scanner, Sato!"

Sato nodded at hearing this. He looked at the scanner on the top of his Digivice and pointed it at the data. The data was sucked into the scanner like the latter was a vacuum and the former was dirt.

The pink light on Sato's Digivice only brightened in the seconds that followed. The glow burst forth from the screen and trailed around the room like a shooting star before slamming into Sato, who was mere feet away from Dobermon at that moment.

"Data Scan complete," came a quiet voice from the inside of the Digivice.

Salamon felt energy flood her body. She suddenly felt that she had the power to defeat Dobermon. All thoughts of hopelessness evaporated away in seconds. Light consumed her small form and spread to everything in the room. The DigiDestined along with Patamon had to shield their eyes against the shine. The only one who didn't do so was Sato, who was too focused on what was happening to his partner to care.

 _"Salamon, Digivolve to... Mikemon!"_

Sato gasped as Salamon changed shape. She now looked like a small cat. In a way, she looked like his mother's partner Gatomon, but she was different as well. She was brown with black stripes on her back instead of white with purple highlight. Large brown gloves were on Mikemon's hands. Her tail was thin and striped. It snaked behind her.

"Woah..." Sato whispered. "She did it! She Digivolved!"

His D-Scanner was still glowing brightly in his hand. He stared at it for a few seconds before looking at Mikemon once again. Had he done that? Had he really gotten her to Digivolve to the Champion level? Sato had never seen Digivolution take place, so he wasn't entirely sure, but he had the sneaking suspicion that that's what he had just done.

Mikemon looked at Dobermon after realizing what had happened. "You're going down," she whispered to him. "Paw Punch!" she cried out, lunging for his head. She punched him in the cheek.

Dobermon was rocked by the blow. He stumbled to the side. "You're going to pay for that!" he yelled angrily. He jumped for her, but Mikemon was swifter and jumped out of the way.

"I don't think that I will," smirked Mikemon. "You're not fast enough, Dobermon. It's just that simple."

Dobermon went to bite her, but Mikemon didn't give him the chance. She jumped up and landed on his snout. The sudden weight made his head crash into the ground. His data fuzzed out for the smallest of seconds. Most of the DigiDestined thought that they had only imagined it since it was so quick.

"Woah... She's actually putting a few cracks in his armor!" exclaimed Mila. "Go, Mikemon! We all believe in you!"

Mikemon looked to Dobermon, whose head was still driven into the ground before him, with a small smile. "It's time to end this. Paw Punch!" she exclaimed. She drew her arm back and prepared to hit him once again.

When the attack hit, Dobermon roared in shock. His data was already starting to scatter. It began to trail upwards on the way to the Digital World. "I have a message for you all," he hissed.

"Then out with it!" Mila cried out. "You're about to be toast, dude!"

"The Eight Shadows are coming for you all," Dobermon threatened. "Before you know it, they'll have struck you all down. It won't be long before you all will be nothing more than a memory in the back of somebody's head."

"I could say the same about you," Mila smirked. "You're about to be sent back off to the other world, in case you hadn't already noticed, Dobermon."

"My only purpose was to deliver that message," Dobermon said. "They are coming for you, whether you're ready or not, and they'll end you all."

His data completely disappeared mere seconds later. Everybody watched the spot where had last been when alive. Their focus was soon averted to Mikemon, who was standing nearby. She began to glow and transformed back into Salamon.

Sato gasped and ran to his partner. "That was amazing! You were amazing!" he cried out. "You're the best Digimon partner I could ever ask for!"

"You don't need to flatter me," Salamon said with a small smile. "I know that I did great against that guy already."

"Wow... I can't believe that actually happened..."

Sato and Salamon turned to see Everleigh. She was shaking as she clutched Gomamon to her chest. The Digimon was still out like a light. "He's really gone... That Digimon is really dead and... We watched him die..." she whispered.

"It was the right thing to do. If we didn't do that to him, he would have killed us all. One life in exchange for many. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Haru assured their sister. "I know that our parents had these regrets when they were our age, but... There was no choice, Ev..."

Everleigh rubbed her eyes and walked for the door that led to the outside. "I need to go..." she mumbled before opening the door. She ran outside not long after.

"I should go after her," Haru said. They waved to the other members of the group before sprinting after her.

"I can't believe that just happened," Chris whispered. Sato could tell that she was holding back most of her fear and confusion. He knew her well. Despite writing about action and adventure every single day, she was afraid of it when it came to Digimon.

"I bet that school will be canceled for the rest of the day. There's no way that any of the kids are going to be able to focus on studies after seeing a crazy dog break in here and start attacking kids," Mila said, doing her best to put a happy lens on the subject. "We can look forward to that. We can always call down the others and tell them about what happened. Even Miyara can come if we call soon enough."

Chris sighed. "Yeah. I suppose that's true," she admitted. "Let's just go on and get out of here. If we get caught here, with all of the wreckage around us... We're dead meat. The government will have to get involved and we'll end up busted."

"She's right," Saki pointed out. "Everybody out. Now. We don't have any time to lose."

The group members all crowded out the door. Sato hadn't expected this all to happen. Seeing Salamon Digivolve like that had excited him in a way. He wasn't so afraid of the Digital World anymore. Maybe Mila was right when she said that everything over on the other side was cool. Sato wasn't sure quite yet, but he was certainly looking at things through a new point of view now.

* * *

"One of them Digivolved?" asked one of the men. "Really?"

"Yeah. Dobermon was enough of a threat that one of the little pests managed to hit the Champion level before sending that sorry sucker back to Primary Village," one of the women said. "The boss was pissed when he hear. He would not stop screaming and cursing Dobermon's name. I guess that his precious little plans were messed up by this while mess... I imagine that he's the type to get irritated when things don't go according to his charts and graphs."

"We should leave him to his anger. We have much more important things to worry about anyways, for example how we're going to take them down. Who's calling dibs on who," another one of the women piped in.

"Yeah. I don't care who I get, just so long as I can make some heads roll," the man from before said. "I think that will satisfy me enough."

"We have to keep that one girl alive. You know that," said the woman with light brown hair.

"Yeah, we get it. You haven't let us forget that you want her alive for yourself since we all got here," huffed one of the men. "You're sure to end up married if you actually calmed down once in a while, you know."

"Maybe I don't want to be married, you brat. Did you ever consider something like that?" the woman snapped. "Probably because my last relationship was a complete and utter disaster and caused my hate of these kids in the first place!"

"Really?" asked one of the other women. "Perhaps now would be a nice time to explain the whole situation while we're waiting for the boss to get here for our meeting."

The woman sighed. "I suppose that I have no choice at this point... Just shut up and get ready to listen to what I have to say. Got it?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it," one of the men told her.

* * *

Sato and Chris walked into the door of their house at around four that evening. They had gone over to hang with Everleigh and Haru after the fight since only their parents were at home for the day. All of the DigiDestined that had seen the Dobermon fight had been there, thinking that they had a lot of talking to do.

Most of it had been Rei taking notes and Everleigh panicking, but it had been a meeting of the DigiDestined, which made it okay with Sato and Mila. Sato was now as excited as Mila had been about the Digital World, so the two were bound to start hanging out a lot more from that point forward.

"We're home," Sato exclaimed with a wide grin as he walked into the house.

Their father, otherwise known as DigiDestined TK Takaishi, walked into the room. "Hey," he greeted. "I heard that something went down at school today."

"How did you find out?" Chris asked with a small frown.

"It was all over the news that school was canceled for the rest of the day," he replied. "I figured that you had to be involved."

"Yeah! And it was so cool!" Sato exclaimed. "Salamon DIgivolved for the first time!"

TK stared at his son in shock at hearing that. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," Chris said, obviously not as thrilled about the subject as Sato was.

"She reached the Champion level. Oddly enough, though, her Champion wasn't the same as Gatomon's. She turned into Mikemon, who's a lot like Gatomon, instead," Sato prattled on.

"Yeah. It sure did impress this little guy," Chris said. "Now, if it's okay, I'm heading to my room. I need a bit of time to myself."

As the long haired girl left alongside her Patamon, TK looked at Sato once again. "I want you to give me all the details about what happened," he told Sato.

Sato nodded. "Okay!" he exclaimed, taking a seat on the couch. He was cradling Salamon in his arms, who had fallen asleep on the way home. "We were eating lunch when Dobermon showed up. He started scaring the other students away, leaving just the rest of the DigiDestined and me. Only Gomamon, Patamon, and Salamon were at the school since they were hiding in a tree outside. They started fighting him off, but they didn't stand a chance... But then Salamon Digivolved! She showed Dobermon what he deserved for coming to the Real World to cause some trouble in the school!"

"Wow... Sounds like you had your hands full," TK commented.

"What did Mikemon do with Dobermon?" Patamon piped in. He had been sitting silently atop his partner's head up until that point in time, listening in on the conversation as it took place.

"Mikemon ended up having to get rid of Dobermon's physical form... He's back in Primary Village for now. But it didn't exactly happen simply," Sato said with a small frown. "He told us that he was a messenger from Eight Shadows... I don't really know what that means, though... He disappeared after saying that the Eight Shadows were coming for us whether we were ready or not... It really freaked the others out..."

A frown appeared on TK's lips. He had expected to hear about just a simple Digimon fight about a creature that had somehow breached the barrier and come for a rumble, not a tale of a Digimon coming with a message that could spell out doom for the DigiDestined.

"I see," was all that the blonde man said. "I get it."

"I think that I'm going to head to my room now, if that's alright," Sato said. "I bet that you're going to want to think about this sort of thing. I know how you are."

"Alright," TK said. He put on a smile and ruffled Sato's hair before the small boy scurried off to his bedroom. The smile dropped as soon as the boy was gone. Danger was coming. Dobermon's message said it clearly. TK wasn't sure if his kids and the rest of the DigiDestined were ready for that sort of thing quite yet, but he knew that they'd have to accept the responsibility soon whether they liked it or not.

* * *

Chris took a seat on her bed with a sigh. "I didn't like that," she whispered.

"The fight, you mean?" Patamon asked.

"Yeah. The fight. I hated it. I always knew that something like this was coming. The reason that us kids exist is to save the world from danger like our parents did. Mila and Sato seem ready to go into it, but... I don't want to. It's risky. People could get hurt. I still hear my father freaking out in the middle of the night due to nightmares of his Patamon being hurt. I don't want that to happen to the rest of us. Is it too much to ask for if I just want a normal life?" Chris questioned. She sighed. "I guess it is."

"We're going to be okay! Us Digimon are tough!" Patamon exclaimed. "I'm not going to leave you. Besides, there are more of you guys than there were of your parents. That means you have more allies. You're going to be stronger than they were."

Chris laughed to herself. "Why do I doubt that?" she muttered. "Our parents are pretty damn powerful, Patamon. Us surpassing them seems a bit unlikely. Besides, we probably won't even need to fight. Our parents can help us fight against whatever enemy Dobermon was talking about. The Eight Shadows don't stand a chance if our parents get involved. We can stay out of it."

"So you think that Mikemon is the only Champion who's going to appear?" Patamon asked.

Chris nodded. "Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, Mikemon appearing is going to be a one time thing. We won't need to fight anymore. At least... I hope. Even if the fighting starts up again, I don't want to get involved. I don't think that Everleigh does either. We can stay our of it together."

"I'm sure that Miyara will stand by your side if you want her to," Patamon pointed out.

Chris smiled gently. "Yeah... I hope so, at least. Miyara probably has all sorts of friends over in her school. I doubt that she knows that the rest of us DigiDestined exist. If she does know, she probably doesn't care. She has a life outside of the group. I know it."

Patamon pointed for the phone. "You'll never know if she knows you exist if you don't call her over," he told her. "You two can hang out tonight like the others suggested. I'm sure that will cheer you up. Being with Miyara always helps you feel better. I can see it in your eyes."

"Yeah," smiled Chris. "I guess so." She got to her feet and walked for the phone that sat on her table. She dialed for Miyara and waited. It rang for a few moments. "Please pick up, Mi... Please pick up..."

* * *

 ** _Another chapter up! Otherwise known as I type this stuff until an ungodly hour for the third time this week. Great._**

 ** _Like I said I would last time, review responses are here. They're down below._**

 ** _Superior-Creativity: I'm glad that you liked it! I hope that you'll be looking at the new chapters!_**

 ** _Lord demon: I've already figured out everything about the organization, but thank you for the suggestion!_**

 ** _Raising Heart: Once again, I'm happy that you enjoyed it. Have another chapter that progresses the story along!_**

 ** _MerlockVonBaron: Thank you for telling me. My laptop hasn't been agreeing with me lately. I luckily managed to fix the issue, so the chapter should be easier to read now._**

 ** _I hope that you all enjoyed!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	4. 4) Trouble in Tamachi

The phone rang out its shrill cry just as Miyara Motomiya walked into her house. She brushed some of her perfectly black hair out of her bright blue eyes. The purple plastic rose in her hair shone in the overhead lighting. She was wearing a white button up shirt with short sleeves along with a black knee skirt. White socks reached her knees beneath her navy blue flat shoes. She had a blue band around her upper right arm and a purple one around her right lower arm. Black fingerless gloves were on both hands.

Miyara stared at the phone through her thin glasses. "I wonder who's calling," she whispered to herself. She scooped up the phone in her fingers and held it up to her ear. "Hello?"

 _"Hi! I mean... Uh... Hey, Mi..."_

Miyara giggled to herself. "Hey, Chris. What's going on?" she asked, playing with her hair.

 _"The DigiDestined over here own Odaiba want to have a meeting tonight, if that's okay... The others want to hang out and talk about what's been going on lately. Do you want to come? It's going to be over at Mila and Xen's house,"_ Chris told her. _"I really hope that nobody else has called to tell you about it..."_

"Nope. You're the first," Miyara replied. "Are you going to be there?"

Chris gasped from the other end of the phone. _"I think so... My parents want me to go and talk with the others about it..."_ she replied.

"I'll ask my fathers about it, alright?" Miyara questioned. "Give me a second."

Miyara placed her hand over the speaker and looked around the room. "Dad?" she asked.

Davis Motomiya walked in not long after. "What's up?" he questioned, ruffling her hair at noticing she was home.

"The others want to meet up in Odaiba tonight. Do you think that I'd be able to make it over there?" Miyara asked.

"If you can spend the night over there, sure. I don't want to drive all the way out there twice in a day and Ken won't let me pass the work off to him anymore," Davis replied. "By the way, Veemon's up in your room."

"Thank you," Miyara smiled before removing her hand from the speaker of the phone. "I can come, but I have to spend the night with somebody..."

 _"Come over to my house! Kyon can come too!"_ Chris cried. _"I mean... If you could come over to my place, that would be cool... Really cool..."_

"I'm alright with that if you are," Miyara grinned. "We haven't hung out in quite some time."

 _"It has been a while... I'm sure that my parents will be cool with it. Anyways, the meeting is at six. Mila's parents are ordering a pizza for us, so you don't need to eat dinner beforehand,"_ Chris told her. _"I'll see you there, Mi."_

"Alright," Miyara said. "I'll go and pack now."

The line went dead as Chris hung up the phone. Miyara did the same a few seconds later and set down the phone on the table once again. Things were already looking bright and chipper as far as the rest of the day was going.

Miyara walked to the stairs that led upstairs and dashed up them. Once she was at her door, she knocked gently. Normally, she didn't have to do that, but she knew how scared Veemon got when she just barged in on one of his naps. It was one of his least favorite things in the world, as he had stated multiple times.

She creaked the door open slowly. "Veemon?" she asked in a whisper. She glanced around before seeing him asleep on her bed, his leg hanging off. She giggled and walked over to her partner. "Come on, Veemon! We have places to be and people to see!"

Veemon jolted awake a few seconds later. "Miyara!" he cried out, jumping from the bed to go over and hug her. She hugged him back as he spoke, realizing what she had just said. "Wait... Where do we have to go?"

"We're going over to Chris and Sato's house for the night. We should start packing. We have to be over at Mila's house at six for a DigiDestined meeting. The others apparently want to talk about what's going on these days," Miyara explained. She grabbed her purple duffel bag and unzipped it. She began to pick out clothes to place in there gently. "We're going to have to start packing for Kyon too. He doesn't get home for another half hour. We'll be close to having to go by that point."

"Are you excited to go over and see Chris?" Veemon asked with a smirk. "I know how you feel about her."

Miyara rolled her eyes. "Veemon, you're being ridiculous. How I feel about Chris is strictly confidential. Besides, we don't know each other all that well. She has all of the other DigiDestined at her side. That means that she probably knows them better than she knows me," she said. "Chances are that she barely realizes that I exist."

"You always say that when talking about your crushes," Veemon whined. "Just go on and admit it! You want to have fun over at her house!"

"We aren't going to be talking about this anymore, Veemon," Miyara said with a small sigh. She grabbed her D-Scanner off of her desk. She had accidentally left it at home that morning, so she hadn't been wearing it while at school.

Veemon, sensing that it was time to change the subject, looked to her Digivice. "Are you excited to get your Crest next month?" he asked.

"I suppose, but there isn't all that much use for it. As far as I've heard, nothing interesting has been happening lately. I barely use my Digivice. My Crest will just be another accessory that I wear from time to time," Miyara told him.

The door to the house slammed shut. Miyara walked from her room and looked over the balcony that overlooked the entryway to the house. "Kyon's home," she told Veemon.

A small scurrying sound could be heard. Kyon Ichijouji's partner, otherwise known as Wormmon, came out of his partner's room seconds later. "Is he downstairs?" Wormmon asked of Veemon, to which the blue Digimon nodded.

Wormmon jumped down the stairs as Veemon and Miyara returned to the latter's room. Miyara clipped her D-Scanner onto her skirt and grabbed her toothbrush. She placed said toothbrush into her duffel bag before zipping it shut. "I think that we're ready," she told Veemon. "Let's head on downstairs and tell Kyon what's going on."

Veemon nodded and led his partner from the room. They walked downstairs just as Kyon set his things down on the couch. His black hair had a few dark blue highlights. Silver goggles, which he had received from Davis, were propped up in his hair. His eyes were a delicate violet color. He wore black trousers with a blue and white jacket that was halfway zipped. A purple shirt was underneath. He had purple and blue tennis shoes on. Gloves of a light gray were on his hands along with a black wristwatch.

"Hey, Ky," Miyara greeted. She set her duffel bag down on the edge of the couch. "You had better head upstairs and start packing."

"What? Why?" Kyon asked, staring up at her in confusion.

"We're going over to the Takaishis' house tonight. There's a DigiDestined meeting, and once it's over, we're spending the night there," Miyara explained. "The others want to talk about things involving Digimon that have taken place recently."

"So... Like that message we got in our Digivices?" asked Kyon.

Miyara responded with a nod. "Yeah. Exactly. We leave at five so that we can get there on time. You're lucky that you got here fifteen minutes early so you have a bit more time," she told him.

Kyon nodded and darted for the stairs swiftly. Wormmon trailed after him, a few feet behind his partner at all times.

Miyara took a seat on the couch alongside Veemon. She picked up the TV remote and pressed the button that turned it on.

A news report flashed on the screen. It was of the school in Odaiba. Miyara had seen it a few times when traveling there to see the other DigiDestined. Police tape surrounded it. "What happened there?" Veemon asked, looking up at his partner.

Miyara shrugged and turned up the volume. A woman with light brown hair in a cropped style appeared on the screen, holding a microphone to her lips. _"Hello, Japan. I'm Chi Minami, and I'm reporting from the school of Odaiba. Earlier today, quite the odd thing took place. The cafeteria was badly torn up when what witnesses are calling a 'terrifying dog' appeared and began attacking the students. Nobody was hurt, which we can be thankful for, but much of the cafeteria was destroyed. Luckily, the damage was only internal."_

"That must be the real reason that they want to have the meeting," Miyara whispered. "Mila, Saki, Xen, Rei, Haru, Everleigh, Chris, and Sato go there. My guess is that they saw the attack take place and now want to discuss what happened."

"I bet that a Digimon did that," Veemon commented. He pointed to the screen as the camera panned through the room, showing exactly what had happened. "Woah... That looks bad."

"I guess that the era of peace has come to an end..." whispered Miyara. "I don't know what to do about it, honestly..."

"We'll have to figure it out while we're talking with the others tonight," Veemon said. "I'm sure that they know what we should do next. They were there, after all."

Miyara nodded dully. "Alright... You're probably right, Veemon. We can ask them about the specifics of what happened when we get there. I'm sure that they'll be glad to tell us about it."

* * *

The man in black walked over to his desk. He took a seat before it and picked up a piece of paper. His next scheduled attack was for the next day. However, he wasn't in the mood to wait. He would much rather send in another person to fight later on that day.

He thought for a few moments of who would be a good opponent. Perhaps somebody big and strong would work. Dobermon had been small and swift, and he had already seen how that worked out for him. A larger figure would likely do him some good.

After a few moments of pondering, the thought struck him. "Alright. Perfect," he whispered with a smirk. He picked up another piece of paper and looked at it in satisfaction. "You're going to be a winner."

The question now was where to send him. The school was empty by that point in time since the police had cleared it out for their investigation. He couldn't think of any place off the top of his head.

The man in black stood up and walked across the room. A single cord was dangling from the ceiling. He grabbed the cord and pulled it downwards. A map of Japan slid out. He pulled the cord a second time and the map of Japan fell down to the floor. On the same paper, yet another map was present. It was of Odaiba and the areas surrounding it.

There was a bridge between Tamachi and Odaiba. Some of the DigiDestined were planning to visit Odaiba away from their home outside of the city, he had hear. Something about a DigiDestined meeting. The best way to get into Odaiba was over that bridge. Perhaps he should send a creature there to cut them off before they could reach the others. It would show the DigiDestined that he hadn't yet come across to fear the Eight Shadows.

He nodded to himself. That was the plan. He was going to send a stronger Digimon to the bridge between Odaiba and Tamachi. The man smirked at the thought and pulled a microphone out of the wall nearby. "Creature Number 456, report to my office. I have a job for you to do... If you're up for it," the man declared. His voice echoed throughout the entire building's sound system. He had installed an intercom into the building for this very use. It was rather helpful in his opinion.

Specifically, it was helpful for moments like these.

* * *

Miyara and Kyon had been driving for a while by this point. Around half an hour had passed since they had left their house in Tamachi behind. Their car, which was a shining black van, went through a tunnel before coming out on the other side. Miyara and her Veemon were sitting in the middle row. In the back of the car, Kyon was sitting with Davis' Veemon. His Wormmon was on his lap.

Davis was sitting in the driver's seat. He noticed the traffic ahead and sighed. "I'm glad we left early now. The traffic is a nightmare," he groaned.

"I figured this would happen," Ken admitted. "It was rather difficult to get home today, so I assumed that it wouldn't have let up before we left."

Miyara propped her chin up with her hand and stared out the window. She thought about what it must have been like to come across a real life Digimon in school. She had seen the partner Digimon of all of the other kids, sure, but seeing an enemy Digimon was a whole new frontier. To her, it sounded like some sort of dream.

She heard gentle snoring from the backseat. She turned around to see Kyon asleep. Wormmon had dozed off next to him as well. Davis' Veemon saw this and laughed to himself.

"What's so funny?" Davis asked, looking at his partner in the mirror.

"He still snores quieter than you do," the older Veemon joked. Miyara and her own partner couldn't help but giggle a little bit at this as well.

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad," Davis said, rolling his eyes.

"There's a reason I wear earplugs at night, Davis," Ken told him. Davis responded by playfully hitting his husband on the arm with the back of his hand. The black haired man laughed to himself, making Davis huff angrily.

Suddenly, the car came to a sudden halt. Davis had slammed the brakes on upon seeing the car in front of him stop out of the blue. He tried to see what was going on, but the loud screams from outside distracted him quickly. "What's going on?" he asked.

Miyara glanced around for a few seconds before seeing something, specifically a looming shadow over the nearby cars. "There!" she cried out, pointing at the shadow. "Wait... What is that thing...? Is it a Digimon?"

Davis frowned and pulled out his Digivice from his pocket. "Don't use that while driving," Ken told him as he pulled out his own D3.

"We're not driving. We're stopped," Davis told him. He waited for a few seconds as data on the Digimon that had appeared popped up on his screen.

"GeoGreymon," Ken said a few seconds later. The Digimon had appeared up on his D3 while Davis was waiting for his to load. "Champion level."

"What are we going to do? We're in the middle of the road and near so many people. This could end up on the evening news faster than you can say Digimon," Miyara said, her voice overflowing with concern.

"We're going to have to fight him," Davis replied. "Come on, Veemon. Let's go and show this guy what for."

Veemon unbuckled his seatbelt and went to climb from the car, but Ken put his hand on Davis' shoulder to stop him. "Wait," he cut in. "Perhaps Miyara and Veemon could handle it."

"W-what?" Miyara asked, staring at him with wide eyes. "How are we supposed to do that? My Veemon can't Digivolve yet. You know that, Dad. How are we supposed to fight that thing off?"

"You can go out and see what happens. I bet that he's going to Digivolve when you need him most, which is right now, Mi," Ken assured her. "We believe in you."

"Couldn't Kyon do it?" Miyara pleaded. "I've never been the biggest fan of fighting. You know this about me."

"In case you hadn't already noticed, he's asleep," Davis' Veemon cut in, jabbing a finger at the sleeping boy. He and his Wormmon were leaned up against the window, snoring quietly. "Just do it, Miyara."

The black-haired girl sighed. "Fine," she mumbled. She unbuckled her seatbelt and watched as her Veemon did the same. Miyara opened the door that led to the outside and climbed out, Veemon close in tow. "We might as well get this over with."

Miyara stalked over to where GeoGreymon stood. He had just blasted one of the wires on the bridge with his fiery breath. The ground trembled as the wires dissipated into nothingness. Miyara stumbled and had to be righted by Veemon to keep from falling over entirely. She shot him a nod of thanks.

A few seconds later, they were right under GeoGreymon's large claws. Miyara didn't know how he hadn't noticed them. "I guess that we have no choice..." she whispered. She cupped her hands around her mouth and craned her neck backwards so that she had a better look at GeoGreymon. "Hey, ugly! Down here!" she cried out.

GeoGreymon took the bait immediately. He looked down at where she and Veemon stood. "You're one of those kids," he said in his low and gruff voice.

"Yeah. I am," Miyara said, doing her best to sound much more threatening than she felt. Her heart was pounding loudly in her chest, practically drowning out all other sounds. "What's it to you?"

"I would tell you, but I'm afraid that you don't really have time to pay it much attention," GeoGreymon replied. He raised up his right claw and slammed it down on the ground near Miyara. She grabbed Veemon and ran out of the way to avoid being flattened.

"You are not the friendly type, are you?" asked Veemon.

"I suppose not. Then again, what did you expect?" Miyara questioned.

Veemon shrugged before turning to GeoGreymon. "If this guy is going to play dirty, I guess that I'll have to play rough and tough too." He sunk into a fighting stance before launching himself forward at GeoGreymon. "Vee Headbutt!"

GeoGreymon didn't even seem to feel the attack. He laughed to himself. The sound echoed across the bridge. "You really think that such a puny attack would work on somebody as strong as me?" he asked. "I hope that you didn't have your hopes up, you pathetic little bug."

Miyara glared at him. "I don't know what to do. He's so much larger than you are. He's the size of most buildings. Unless we can get my dads to help us, we're dead meat," she said nervously.

"Maybe we don't need their help," Veemon commented as he launched himself at GeoGreymon's chest once again. This time, the attack threw the larger Digimon off balance. He stumbled for a moment before righting himself with a resonating growl.

"I don't know... He's so strong..." Miyara murmured. "We don't stand a chance."

"If we believe in ourselves, then maybe we can do it!" Veemon exclaimed. "Just have faith that I'll be able to take care of this, Mi!"

Miyara nodded and looked down at her feet. Her hand clenched into a fist. There was no way that they'd be able to win if she was beating herself up about being weak before the fight had even begun. She'd have to believe like Veemon was telling her to do. That was their only option and she knew it.

Miyara had been this way for a while. She didn't think that she was as strong as the others such as Mila or Saki. They seemed so much tougher than Miyara could even hope to be. However, she wasn't going to get anywhere if she kept on beating herself up about the whole debacle. She needed to lighten up, try being a bit kinder to herself.

"Alright... I believe that we can do this," Miyara declared. "Get him, Veemon!"

A sudden light sparked from her Digivice. Miyara gasped and pulled it off her waistband. She stared at it. A black light had sparked on the screen and was slowly spreading outwards. It wasn't bright necessarily, but it still seemed to be rather overwhelming to her.

Miyara watched as a small square appeared in her hands. It looked like a patch of black data. She stared at it for a few seconds, as if entranced, before pointing the scanner on her Digivice at it. The data was sucked in within seconds.

The light from her Digivice spread outwards. A powerful wind kicked up not long after. Miyara held her skirt down to keep it from going up. She stared directly into the inferno at Veemon, who she had noticed was changing shape...

 _"Veemon, Digivolve to... Raidramon!"_

When the light faded, Miyara gasped in shock. Veemon was no longer present. He had been replaced by a different figure.

It was a slender dragon sort of creature with blue and yellow highlights here and there. Lighting crackled on the horn that stuck out from the top of his head. He looked rather threatening to Miyara, but there was a fair chance that was just her.

She realized a few seconds later what had happened. Veemon had Digivolved. She had somehow done something that got him to Digivolve to the Champion level. How was that possible?

Miyara remembered this Digimon, this Raidramon, in a way. She had seen pictures and videos of him working alongside Davis, saving people as a DigiDestined is supposed to do. Her father's Veemon had armor Digovolved to reach the state of being Raidramon. Hers only had to Digivolve normally to do that.

She didn't even try to think up the logic behind it. She knew that it would only give herself a headache. Instead, she focused on Raidramon. He turned to her for a moment. Even if he didn't say anything, she knew what he was thinking. He was thinking something along the lines of 'thank you'. She knew that it was him thanking her for helping him to reach the Champion level. She responded by nodding to him with a small smile.

Raidramon turned to GeoGreymon a few seconds later. "I think that this is much more of a fair fight," he told the larger Digimon. "You're going down."

"You're still smaller than I am. Much smaller, as a matter of fact. You don't stand a chance and you know it," GeoGreymon said.

"Sometimes, being smaller actually isn't all that bad, something I'm sure that you're going to realize soon," Raidramon replied. "Thunder Blast!"

Lightning danced on the edge of Raidramon's horn. He jumped backwards and tilted his head forwards. The lightning slammed into GeoGreymon. He stepped backwards. Luckily, there were no cars behind him, so nobody was hurt in the process. "Are we really going to play this game?" GeoGreymon asked angrily.

"I think that we are," Raidramon answered. "Thunder Blast!"

He sent out his lightning attack once again. GeoGreymon grunted when it hit this time around. While he wasn't saying it, GeoGreymon was obviously being weakened by these attacks. He glared at Raidramon angrily. "You're a puny little bug," he snapped. "I'm going to crush you like one!"

GeoGreymon lifted his foot up to crush Raidramon, but the smaller Digimon was much too nimble for him. He lunged to the side and landed next to Miyara. "Hop on," Raidramon told her.

Miyara, not in the mood to argue, nodded to herself and climbed onto Raidramon's back. He was rather comfortable, believe it or not. She held on tightly to his sides as he jumped backwards a little bit more and prepared once again to launch an attack at GeoGreymon.

"Thunderbolt!" Raidramon cried out seconds later. He spat out his lightning at GeoGreymon's chest. The larger creature groaned once again. He wasn't taking these hits well at all.

"Mega Flame!" GeoGreymon suddenly exclaimed. He created a fireball in the back of his throat and launched it forwards at Raidramon. The dragon Digimon jumped out of the way, leaving the ground that he had just been standing on scorched badly. The cement was eaten away at slightly, but it was barely noticeable.

"Thunderbolt!" Raidramon shouted once more. He exhaled another lightning bolt at GeoGreymon. This time, he was hit right in the neck. The attack made him fall backwards, crushing a series of cars behind him. Luckily, most of the people in the area had evacuated at seeing the large creature. Miyara was thankful for that. She didn't want to have the guilt of all of those people hanging over her head.

Raidramon jumped onto GeoGreymon's chest and stared at him for a second. "Your evil deeds end here," he said after brief hesitation. Miyara didn't know why he was suddenly so unsure. He had been so certain of all of his actions up until this moment. "Electric Bite!"

Raidramon bit GeoGreymon on the neck. GeoGreymon let out a cry of pain before going limp. An electric charge had run through his body and ultimately ended his life, leaving Raidramon the only living Digimon in the area.

He jumped off of the chest of his enemy and watched as GeoGreymon's data spiraled upwards and to the Digital World so that he could be reborn as an egg and then a new Digimon.

Raidramon gestured for Miyara to climb off. She did so, still staring at the place where GeoGreymon had breathed his last. Raidramon transformed back into Veemon in the seconds that followed. He fell backwards onto his back not long after, exhausted after the fight.

Miyara snapped out of it when she heard him hit the ground. "Veemon!" she cried out, crouching down next to him. She began to cradle him in her arms. "Are you okay?"

Veemon responded with a nod. "Yeah... That just took a lot out of me. That's all," he assured her.

Miyara nodded and got to her feet, still carrying Veemon. She walked to her family's car and climbed in after opening the door, not daring to speak a word as she did so.

"You did it!" Davis exclaimed happily. He turned around and held up his hand for a high five. Miyara looked away and shut the door of the van. Veemon sat down in his seat and sighed tiredly. Davis took his hand back afterwards.

"So he Digivolved to Champion, did he?" asked Ken with a small smile.

"Yeah... Raidramon is his Champion form," Miyara replied dully.

Ken frowned upon hearing her upset tone. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Miyara sighed. "I don't think that this is right... Having to kill Digimon just because they get in our way... They're innocent creatures. They don't deserve to die like that..." she whispered.

"That Digimon... He wasn't innocent, Mi," Ken assured her. "He was going to kill all of the people here. You and Veemon did the right thing. If you hadn't done that... I'm afraid to think of what would have happened."

Miyara looked down and began to twirl her hair over one finger. "I guess you're right... I'm just not used to this stuff yet. That's all. I'm sure that I'll get used to it soon. It's not like I have a choice, anyways... This is the second Digimon attack today. That means something. I just know that it does," she said.

Ken sighed. "I'm afraid so... But you'll be ready for whatever comes your way. I know you will be. I have faith in you."

"Me, too! You did great out there, Miyara, and I know that you'll do just as great in the future!" Davis exclaimed.

"Thanks, Dad," Miyara smiled. "Both of you. You're the best."

Davis grinned to himself, satisfied with receiving the compliment, and turned back to the road. His smile fell and disappeared once he noticed what had happened. "Wait... All of those people left their cars, which means that we're the only people on the road..." he whispered.

"We're going to have to find a way around them, I guess..." Ken sighed.

Davis pulled out his phone and passed it to Miyara. She cocked her head his way with a small frown. "What's this for?" she asked.

"You might want to call your friends and tell them that we're going to be a little late," he replied. "It's going to be a nightmare to get there now... We're going to have to drive in between all these cars..."

"Suddenly, I'm starting to wish that GeoGreymon had destroyed some more of those cars," joked Davis' Veemon. Davis, Ken, his Wormmon Miyara, and her Veemon all laughed at his comment.

Kyon and his partner woke up at hearing the noise. He rubbed his eyes and glanced around. "What did I miss...?" he questioned as he tried to wake up fully.

"It's... It's a long story," Miyara said with an awkward smile. "If you can stay awake long enough, I'll go on and tell you."

Kyon rolled his eyes playfully. "Just go on and tell me," he grinned. "It sounds to me like it was something pretty exciting. Out with it!"

* * *

Chris picked up her phone around half an hour later. It was 6:15. Miyara and Kyon were late. She answered as soon as she noticed that it was from Davis. "Hello?" she asked.

 _"We're going to be a little bit late,"_ Miyara said from the other end. _"It's a long story, so I'll tell you when I get there, but... We might be a little while."_

"I'll go on and tell the others," Chris replied.

 _"Thanks. See you later."_ The line went dead as Miyara hung up.

Chris did the same a few seconds later before sighing. Why did she have a bad feeling about Miyara being late?

* * *

 ** _Superior-Creativity: I'm glad that you're enjoying things so far! Things are going to kick off and end up even better after everybody's partners hit Champion, so you can look forward to that._**

 ** _Raising Heart: I think I fixed the problem. The second chapter should be working now. Try and go back and reread it. Hopefully, things will be resolved._**

 ** _Another chapter up! Once again, it's up past midnight. Great going, Digital._**

 ** _Anyways, updates might not be as frequent for a while. I start up acting camp tomorrow and I have to be asleep before 12:30 those nights. Most of the time, I end up staying up until at least 1:30 to write these, which means that they aren't going to be posted as much._**

 ** _Also, in case you didn't already notice, Miyara and Chris are going to be a ship. I've been toying around with some of the other ships I planned out (most of which involve characters that haven't appeared yet), so you can expect some romantic things to be going down soon, though I'm pretty sure that Chris and Miyara have already been romantic enough._**

 ** _That should be all. Thank you for reading!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	5. 5) Seismic Sledge

Mila took a seat on the floor of her family's apartment. She crossed her legs and glanced around the circle. "Alright. Is everybody here?" she asked.

Xen, Saki, Rei, Haru, Everleigh, Chris, Sato, Miyara, and Kyon were already there. All of their Digimon were sitting near their partners, or in Patamon's case, atop Chris's head. Saki did a quick head count before turning to Mila. "We're missing two," she told her.

As if on cue, the front door burst open and a girl came hurrying in. "Sorry I'm late!" came the voice of the person walking in.

Mila instantly recognized her as Alluriana, or Ali, as she preferred to be called, Hida. Her partner, Armadillomon was crawling along next to her. Ali's brown hair reached her shoulders and had a red dyed bottom layer. She had blue eyes and a few freckles. She wore a light blue button up shirt with short sleeves with a tan, blue, gray, and pale yellow plaid tie. She had a light yellow skirt that reached her knees. She had a gray band around her right knee with white ankle boots. A gray bow was tucked into her hair.

"I'm glad you were able to make it," Mila smiled as Ali took a seat in the circle.

"School got out a little bit late today," Ali said with an awkward smile. "I didn't have all that much time to get ready before needing to leave."

"That's fine," Everleigh said quietly. She scooted over a little bit so that Ali would have a bit more room since the brown haired girl had sat next to her.

"Now we're only missing Yuko. Mikio, Tanaka, and Taro said that they didn't want to come, so only they're missing," Rei declared.

"I wonder why Mikio didn't want to stick around," Saki frowned. "I understand Taro since he gets so jittery around people and Tanaka since... Well, they're Tanaka, but Mikio?"

"Who even knows with Mikio anymore? We just shouldn't ask questions," sighed Mila. "I never understood the kid and I doubt that the rest of you guys do either."

The door creaked open. All of the kids turned to see somebody walking inside. Unlike Ali, this person didn't apologize for being late. Instead, Yuko Akichi just walked in and stood up against the wall away from all of the action.

Yuko's lavender hair was tied up into a bun by two chopsticks, the same color as their mother's. Their blue eyes were dull as always. They wore red trousers with a zipped up black jacket. They had black and white flat shoes on. Thin silver glasses framed their eyes. A blue, red, and purple bandanna was tied loosely around their neck.

"What's with the staring?" Yuko asked in their low voice. "Just get on with it already.

Mila, who was honestly afraid of Yuko, shook off their comment and turned back to the meeting. "Alright. Let's focus on the subject at hand," she suggested.

"Yeah. Digimon attacks are becoming more and more frequent," Sato said.

"They are?" Ali questioned with a frown. "I haven't heard anything about fights going on..."

"Oh, yeah. You haven't seen either one of the battles," Mila recalled. "We can get onto that later. First, let's talk about that weird message that came through our Digivices."

"It was so odd... We were here, living our lives out normally, and then our Digivices started talking to us. I wonder who sent that message," frowned Saki.

"I think that it was a female. The voice sounded rather feminine to me," Rei said.

"I guess that we'll just have to see. You never know about gender these days," shrugged Chris.

"I got that message," Yuko mumbled. They had still chosen not to join the circle on the floor. Yuko's partner, Hawkmon, had stealthily snuck in and taken a seat next to Ali while nobody was looking. "It interrupted one of my parents' chats."

"You mean fights," Ali corrected. "I've heard about how they're like Yuko."

Yuko rolled their eyes. "Shut up, Ali."

Ali nodded and looked back to the rest of the circle, figuring that it was best to leave the lavender-haired child alone for the time being.

"Let's start talking about the fights now," suggested Saki.

"So far, two fights have taken place," Rei declared, as if they were a computer reciting off an article. "The first one was in a school here in Odaiba. Dobermon appeared and began to rip up the cafeteria, only to be stopped by Salamon."

"I reached the Champion level and fought off Dobermon as Mikemon," Salamon chirped up.

"Yeah. It was really cool," grinned Sato, stroking the head of his partner.

"I heard about that on the news," Miyara recalled. "It was before my dads and I left to drive out here to Odaiba."

"Yeah... I was afraid that it would be on the news," Rei frowned. "I hope that the media at least managed to stay out of the second fight."

"There was a second fight?" asked Ali in shock.

"Yeah. While Miyara was riding out here to Odaiba with Kyon and their partners, GeoGreymon attacked a bridge. Veemon reached the Champion level and fought him off. Nobody was harmed at the scene, which we can be thankful for," Chris explained.

"I'm starting to see a pattern," Haru declared.

"What is it?" Palmon questioned, looking up at her partner curiously.

"A Digimon comes to fight us, we fight back, one Digimon reaches the Champion level and wins the fight, and then the cycle repeats. That's happened twice now. Something's coming. The more this happens, the more that it becomes obvious," Haru told the group.

"I don't like the idea of us having to fight..." Everleigh whispered. "We shouldn't have to do this..."

"We're DigiDestined. We don't have a choice," Mila told her.

"I wonder which one of our Digimon is going to evolve next," Saki said with a small frown.

"I bet it'll be me," Armadillomon said with a proud smirk.

"In your dreams," Gomamon taunted, earning him a huff from Armadillomon's general direction.

"Stop arguing already," Yuko scoffed, rolling their eyes.

"I don't see you doing anything productive, Akichi, so I don't think that you can have much input in this situation," Mila told them, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips.

"I don't see you doing anything productive either, Kamiya," Yuko said.

"Stop arguing!" Xen suddenly cried out, speaking for the first time all night.

"Xen's right. We're never going to get anything done if you guys are fighting this entire time," Biyomon pointed out.

Yuko sighed and went for the door. "I don't know why I wanted to come to this shitty ass meeting anyways. I have much better things to do," they muttered.

"Yuko!" exclaimed Hawkmon. She got to her feet and ran after Yuko as they walked from the room in a huff.

"What do we do about Yuko?" asked Everleigh.

"They'll get over it. You know how they are. By the time that we're done with this, they'll be over their pettiness and will be willing to talk about everything again," Gomamon told her. "Don't worry about it."

"Alright..." Everleigh whispered, but it was clear that she wasn't convinced.

"What should we do about all of these Digimon attacks? They're bound to hit the media soon," frowned Gabumon.

"We try and keep our partners out of the limelight. We don't want them to be thought of as enemies. Were lucky as it is that they haven't been taken away for experiments or something of the like," sighed Chris.

"I'm sure that we'll be okay as long as we handle the fights when people aren't around," Rei said.

A sudden beeping noise erupted from the various D-Scanners around the room. Ali pulled off her Digivice the fastest and looked at the screen. "There's a Digimon nearby!" she gasped.

"Are you sure that it isn't just Yuko?" Rei questioned.

"I'm positive. I know what Yuko's signal looks like, and this isn't anything like it. This one's pretty big," Ali assured him.

Rei pulled out their laptop from the bag that was sitting next to them. They powered it up quickly and began typing away at it, their fingers clicking at least two times per second. "There has to be something on here that will show us what's going on..." they whispered.

"I thought that your dad put a program on there to help with these things," Mila frowned.

"He didn't think that we'd need it for a while," Rei explained. A few seconds later, they grinned. "I got something working. Here we are."

"Was Ali right?" Armadillomon asked.

Rei nodded. "Yeah. There's a huge Digimon nearby... But that's not all."

"What else?" Saki questioned, already rising to their feet.

"Yuko's really close to it!" Rei exclaimed.

"We need to go and help them!" Sato cried out.

"Even after they showed us so much attitude?" asked Mila.

"They're a member of the team, Mila. We have no choice," Agumon told her.

A huff escaped Mila's lips. She got to her feet and popped her knuckles. She grabbed her Digivice from the nearby table and slapped it onto her waistband. "Let's get going," she declared. "That bratty little kid isn't going to save themselves."

* * *

The man in black growled under his breath and turned to the Ogremon at his right. "What did you just say?" he snarled angrily.

Ogremon clutched the handle to his club a little bit tighter. "I told you... Sangloupmon got away," Ogremon repeated nervously. While he woulds never admit it, he was afraid that the man in black was about to do something awful to him. He wouldn't put it past the man to kill him off over something such as this.

The man in black swore angrily and glared at Ogremon. "Where is he now?" he asked.

"The guy found the room that has the portal to the real world. He must have gone through it and gone over to Earth," Ogremon replied. "We're tracking his signal to be next to an apartment complex in the city of Odaiba."

"Leave him be for now," the man in black sighed. "He's near those children. We might as well scare them a little bit more before we truly set things in motion."

Ogremon replied with a nod. He darted from the room, leaving the man in black alone with his thoughts. The man in black slammed his right fist against the wall. "Damn it all," he muttered. "Stupid Ogremon can't even look after one little Digimon. That's so typical."

The man pressed a small button near the floor. A large screen appeared from behind the wall. It showed a map of Odaiba on a screen. The signal for Sangloupmon was in the center of a street of apartments, just as Ogremon had told him.

There was a smaller symbol nearby. It was small and silvery in color. "One of those kids..." he spat angrily. So far, his track record with defeating the children wasn't all that impressive. Two of the partner Digimon of the children had already reached the Champion level. If his pathetic minions kept up this sort of performance, he was bound to fail until he brought in his seven most powerful units.

The man sensed somebody nearing his room. "Hinoka," he said roughly.

The woman with light brown hair heard her name and walked into the room. "Yes?" she asked.

"Get ready," the man told her. "A week from tomorrow, you're going to show your face." He picked up a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Go to this address at five at night. They'll know who you are."

"Of course they will," Hinoka told him. "They've met me already."

"Don't let them take you down then. You're not taking your partner, so you're going to need to get out of this scrape on your own," the man said.

"Alright," Hinoka said with a nod. She walked from the room, leaving the man alone once more so he could think.

The man looked down at the papers sitting before him. He hoped that Hinoka could handle it. If she couldn't, then he may just need to get rid of her once and for all. He couldn't afford to have somebody betraying the rest of the group. If somebody went there, then there was no choice but to eliminate them.

The man crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He could imagine the shock on the faces of the older DigiDestined already. They'd be angry when Hinoka showed up. She had once meant something to them, after all. Of course, they had turned around and stabbed her in the back. One of them had been the love of Hinoka's life, but of course, that was not meant to be in the end, and that sparked her anger at the DigiDestined.

The man was glad that she didn't like them much. It helped him out quite a bit. He'd be able to take advantage of her emotions and direct it into something productive that would ultimately overthrow the pathetic children that were hailed as heroes throughout the Digital World.

He wondered for a moment if they'd ever reach his world in the first place. They hadn't opened any portals in ages, which meant that the chances were slim. If somebody did end up in the Digital World, however, the mani in black would not hesitate to go after them and take them down in the blink of an eye.

For the time being, however, he would just have to go along with what was happening at that moment in time. Sangloupmon would hopefully rattle some of the children to their very core. The man in black was thinking that would be the case. If Sangloupmon had managed to escape the clutches of himself and the rest of the Eight Shadows, then he was strong enough to take down a few lousy kids. With only two unexperienced Champions on their side, they'd easily be shaken down by Sangloupmon's sudden attack.

The man in black began to laugh. He was starting to think that the Digimon's escape had been for the best in the end.

At the very least, that's what he was hoping for.

* * *

Sangloupmon towered over a pair of figures on a street in Odaiba. He smirked down at Yuko Akichi and Hawkmon. Hawkmon was standing protectively in front of her partner. "You're not going to do anything to him!" she exclaimed.

"I highly doubt that you're going to be able to do anything to me," Sangloupmon said, laughing to himself.

"I wouldn't get so confident," Yuko told him, rolling their eyes as they did so. "Overconfidence will lead to your ultimate downfall."

Sangloupmon raised a paw. "Sticker Blade!" he exclaimed.

"Diamond Shell!"

Armadillomon came in out of nowhere, slamming into Sangloupmon's arm. Sangloupmon cried out in pain and growled as Armadillomon came out of his shell. "It's not nice to pick on innocent kids, you know," Armadillomon told Sangloupmon. "Don't you have any manners?"

Sangloupmon ignored Armadillomon's snide remarks and looked past him at Yuko and Hawkmon. The latter was starting to lead Yuko away from the action and hopefully to safety. Yuko wasn't objecting or throwing around any sarcastic comments, which was new for Armadillomon.

"Get out of here!" Ali cried out as she ran into view. "Armadillomon and I can take this guy on!"

"Are you sure about that? It seems to me like your partner just got lucky by attacking right there," Yuko said, raising an eyebrow her direction.

"Cut out the tough act for once and leave it to us," Armadillomon instructed of him. "The others are on their way."

Yuko rolled their eyes and walked away with Hawkmon. They knew that Ali and Armadillomon didn't stand a chance, but there was no harm in letting them see that. They were just up against a measly Champion. It's not like that Digimon would do anything too terrible to them, right?

Armadillomon rammed himself into Sangloupmon once again. The larger Digimon stumbled backwards after being hit. Ali clapped for her partner, a wide grin on her face. "You go, Armadillomon!" she exclaimed excitedly.

A few moments later, Mila, Rei, and the rest of their group came into view. Miyara was on top of Raidramon. Sato was holding Mikemon in his arms. "Hey!" exclaimed Mila. "Don't start the party without us!"

"Thunder Blade!" Raidramon yelled, lunging at Sangloupmon. The indigo Digimon fell to the ground after being hit by Raidramon.

"I guess that it's no longer our moment," Armadillomon told Ali.

"That's okay. We've already done enough, Armadillomon," she said. "I believe that the others were meant to handle this anyways."

"I don't think that you think that deep down," Armadillomon frowned.

Behind them, Raidramon was lunging for Sangloupmon again, the latter of which was now back up and ready to roll. Sangloupmon seized Raidramon's horn and used it to fling him into the wall of a nearby building.

"I mean it. The others can handle this just fine," Ali assured him. "We should just go... We're probably getting in their way anyways."

Sangloupmon punched Mikemon when the cat Digimon came close to him. Mikemon was sent flying into a car that was parked nearby. The alarm screamed as soon as Mikemon hit it. Sato cried out for his partner and ran to her side.

"Please, Ali. For me?" Armadillomon asked.

"They don't need my help," Ali sighed. She turned on her heel and started away.

Sangloupmon ran for Agumon and Gabumon next. He let his tail slam into both of the Rookies. They slid backwards across the ground, unable to attack in the heat of the moment.

"Really? To me, it looks like they really need your help," Armadillomon said.

"There are ten of them and they have two Champions. They'll be fine."

Tentomon prepared his Super Shocker attack, but Sangloupmon saw it coming. He jumped off the ground and propelled himself close to Tentomon and Biyomon, who was flying nearby. Within seconds, they had been shoved to the ground.

Armadillomon nudged her leg and pointed towards Sangloupmon and the rest of the Digimon. Palmon had tied up the Champion Digimon, but he broke out easily and kicked her swiftly. Gomamon and Veemon fell to his rapid attacking seconds later.

"Only Patamon is left," Armadillomon pointed out. "Come on. Please?"

Ali watched as Patamon was swatted to the ground in the blink of an eye. He grunted as he hit a nearby streetlight. The glass around the bulb shattered and fell to the ground, landing on a few of the DigiDestined.

"Alright!" Ali exclaimed. "Let's show this guy what we're made of!"

A light erupted from Ali's brown Digivice. She pulled it off of her skirt and stared at its screen. "What's going on?" she asked. She covered her eyes as a brown patch of data appeared before her.

"I think that's going to help me Digivolve!" Armadillomon cried out.

Ali grabbed the patch of data from the air and held it before her Digivice. The scanner section accepted the data rather quickly. The brown light only intensified. A thin stream of it flew through the air and slammed into Armadillomon. He gasped, suddenly feeling rather funny.

"Woah..." Ali whispered. She closed her eyes against the glare, but in the distance, she could hear an echoing voice...

 _"Armadillomon, Digivolve to... Grumblemon!"_

The light disappeared not long after. Ali stared at her new partner. He had changed in many ways, to say the least. For one, he was much bigger now. On top of that, his power levels had increased. She could hear chirping from her Digivice, but it sounded distant to her since she was so spaced out.

Grumblemon propped up a large hammer on his shoulder. He smiled at Ali, which made her gasp. She'd have to get used to the new appearance of her partner, to say the least. She had grown used to seeing small Armadillomon in the ten years that they'd known one another. Adjustment was going to be required if she was to see this new creature as her partner.

Sangloupmon scoffed from nearby. His tail twitched slightly as he spoke. "So what? He reached the Champion level. Anybody can do that," he commented rudely.

Grumblemon ignored his remark and lunged forward, hammer outstretched before him. "Seismic Sledge!" he exclaimed. The hammer in his hands slammed down onto Sangloupmon's head. The indigo creature stumbled and fell backwards.

"Is that something anybody can do?" Grumblemon taunted, standing over Sangloupmon. He stuck his tongue out to tease him further, which did nothing but anger Sangloupmon further.

"It means nothing," Sangloupmon growled. He jumped up into the air and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sticker Blade!"

A variety of small knives appeared from thin air. They came down like a thousand tiny needles, aiming directly for Grumblemon. Grumblemon used his hammer like a baseball bat and swung them all away. Most of the knives flew away into the air without doing a thing, but a few hit Sangloupmon. He flinched after being hit in the arm, but a few more hits, these to his legs, chest, and head, made him fall down once more.

"You're a brat, you know that?" Sangloupmon snarled as he got to his feet.

"I sort of gathered that you thought that," Grumblemon said with a small shrug. "Seismic Sledge!"

Once again, Grumblemon hit Sangloupmon in the head with his hammer. A yell escaped Sangloupmon's lips. He slammed into the ground and made a large dent in the cement of the ground.

"Damn, you sure can take a lot of hits," Grumblemon complained. "Seismic Sledge!"

For a third and final time, Grumblemon hit Sangloupmon with his hammer. This time, Sangloupmon let out a cry of anguish. His data began to dissipate the second the hammer made contact with his stomach. A few seconds later, he was gone completely from sight.

Grumblemon walked over to Ali before shrinking and returning to his Rookie form. Armadillomon walked a bit closer and placed a paw on Ali's foot. "How did I do?" he asked.

"That was... That was amazing..." Ali whispered, a stunned but excited smile on her lips. "I had no idea that you could do all that..."

"If you want the truth, neither did I," Armadillomon said with a laugh. Ali giggled along with him. "I just kind of hoped that you knew what you were doing when you had me Digivolve."

"Ali!"

Ali turned around to see Mila and Saki walking closer. She saw Raidramon and Mikemon turn back into Veemon and Salamon respectively behind the duo of DigiDestined.

"That was amazing!" Mila exclaimed, her eyes shining happily. "Who would have guessed that Armadillomon had that much in him?"

"Are you implying that I'm not tough already?" Armadillomon asked of Mila, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Not at all. I'm just... Wow. That was so cool," Mila grinned.

"I guess that these Digimon attacks are going to become commonplace now," Chris mumbled as she cradled Patamon close to her chest.

"Things have certainly changed today," agreed Saki.

"I just hope that there aren't any more attacks today. I've had enough of all that violent stuff for 24 hours," Veemon said with a small smile.

"Hey... Where did Yuko go?" Biyomon suddenly asked.

Xen gasped. "You're right... I have no idea where he went," he said quietly.

Ali looked at her Digivice. "They're about a block away," she declared. "I'm going to go after them, if that's alright. You guys can head back to Mila's house."

"I think our meeting is over," Agumon said with a small sigh. "I doubt anybody's going to be in the mood to talk after this mess."

"Yeah. We should head home," Kyon agreed. "I guess that I'll see you guys later."

Everybody walked their separate directions with a small wave. Ali turned to Armadillomon. "Come on. We're off to find Yuko. Hopefully, they'll have something to say to us after that mess of a fight. I'd hate to get only silence after all we did to help them out."

* * *

Yuko was on their way back to their apartment when they heard footsteps behind them. They knew that it couldn't possibly have been Hawkmon, as she was flying at their side.

They whirled around to see Ali and Armadillomon standing nearby. "Hey," Ali said simply with a small wave. It was obvious to Yuko that she was unclear of how to start up a formal conversation.

"What do you want?" Yuko asked with a frown. They crossed their arms and glared at her.

"I just... I wanted to tell you that we won the fight. Armadillomon reached the Champion level. It was really cool. I wish that you could have been there to see it. I'm sure that even you would have been impressed," smiled Ali.

"I highly doubt that," Yuko said, turning on their heel to walk away. It was clear that they weren't in the mood for any sort of chat.

Ali trailed after Yuko anyways, even if she knew that they weren't happy with talking. "Yuko... Do you think that you're ever going to formally join the team?" she asked.

"Maybe. Probably not. If you ask me, you're all a bunch of dim witted fools that have nothing to do with me. Even if the world is reaching its potential end, I'd much rather do things with Hawkmon than with the rest of you," Yuko replied, their voice perfectly monotone.

A frown appeared on Ali's lips. "But... We need your help. We all know that something is coming. We could really use your assistance in taking down whatever threat is coming our way, you know," she told them.

"Even so, I have better things to do with my time. If you ask me, you all should go about your merry little lives. These recent attacks mean nothing. You should let them go and forget that they ever happened. You'll be much more peaceful if you do that," they told Ali.

"Yuko, please listen to me. We need your help. We aren't going to win this fight if the fifteen DigiDestined aren't all united. Don't you get it?" Ali asked, her voice suddenly harsher. She was getting more and more irritated with Yuko's attitude by the second.

"I have nothing to say to you or the rest of you," Yuko suddenly snapped, cutting off Ali from anything else she might have been planning to say. They sighed and walked a little bit faster. "Just leave me alone."

Ali followed after them anyways, not ready to give up. "Why are you so harsh on us?" she suddenly questioned.

Yuko stopped walking and froze completely. Their eyes narrowed as they stared off into the distance. "That's none of your business," they said blankly. Not even their normal sarcastic edge was present in their tone.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Ali asked. "You're not going to do anybody any good if you just keep on dodging all these questions."

Yuko whirled around to face Ali. "Back off already! I have no reason to answer to you! There's nothing that we need to say to one another! I don't need to explain anything about myself to a girl who has nothing better to do than pester me about something that has nothing to do with her!" they suddenly yelled.

Hawkmon put a wing on Yuko's shoulder. "Let's... Let's go home..." she muttered, knowing that if they stayed, the situation would only get worse.

Yuko nodded lightly. They saw Ali's shoulders deflate as their words sunk in. "I..." Ali turned away and rubbed her eyes before sprinting away as fast as her legs would carry her. Armadillomon shot Yuko an angry glare before chasing after her, though he was much slower than his human partner.

"What was that about?" asked Hawkmon.

"I just didn't want to answer all of her damn questions, okay?" Yuko replied unhappily.

"You're going to have to open up to them one day," Hawkmon reminded them.

"Yeah, but as long as that day is not today, I'm fine with that," Yuko said. "Now, let's go home and see what argument my parents have started up this time around."

* * *

Hinoka walked into the building that the man in black had set up for her. She glanced around in silence. It wasn't the best place, but it was something. She wasn't going to be sleeping here, anyways. It served only one purpose, and after it had shown itself to be useful, she was heading out once and for all.

Hinoka approached the far wall. There were chains attached to it. They were silver and shone dully in the little overhead light. Hinoka picked up a few of the links and looked at them. They looked to be rather new, which she was thankful for. If they were older, then they likely wouldn't have stood a chance.

Hinoka had heard from the man in black that they were made up of the strongest metal in the Digital World. Hinoka didn't know the name of said metal, but she didn't care enough to learn it. She had better things to do, after all, such as capture one of those DigiDestined.

A voice could be heard from behind her. "Do you think that it will work?"

"I think it will be just fine," Hinoka replied, not even looking up. "I'm hoping that things work out in my favor. I'm going to reclaim what I rightly own that those DigiDestined took away from me."

"I'm sure that we'll be successful."

"I hope so," Hinoka muttered. "If I lose her again, I'm never going to forgive those DigiDestined until the day that they're all lying in a grave, including that pathetic excuse for a man one of them in particular is."

"Can you really wait a week and a half, though?"

"I've waited for over ten years now. I think I can survive another week and a half."

* * *

 _Raising Heart: I'm glad that you're excited! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!_

 _Superior-Creativity: Things are going to get a lot more complex plot wise in the next few chapters. A few more of the mysteries behind the Eight Shadows are going to be revealed, so the puzzle is going to get a bit wider in the near future._

 _Lord demon: I'm afraid that I already have everything figured out regarding the storyline. You seem to have your idea planned out quite a bit, so maybe you could use that to your advantage by writing it into a story of your own._

 _I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. This one took a bit longer since I was babysitting every day this week, but I managed to crank it out from some late night typing. The next update will hopefully come a bit sooner. I'm planning on going into a certain character next time around, but who? I guess you'll just have to figure that out._

 _Anyways, I'll see you guys later!_

 _-Digital_


	6. 6) Fight of Flames

Sleep didn't exactly come easily for Yuko the night after the attack.

They had decided to crash early so that they didn't have to think about their argument with Ali. They tended to do that so that they could avoid their problems. Yuko ended up entering their room almost immediately after getting home.

Hawkmon didn't fall asleep and neither did Yuko. Yuko's parents had broken out into yet another argument, the fourth one that week. It wasn't that they weren't used to it. In fact, they had heard fighting pretty much their entire life when it came to their parents. However, they still had troubles going to bed when the intense arguments sparked.

Words were flying for around an hour after Yuko went into their room. They eventually just blocked it out. They had heard it all before. Their father was going to pester their mother about the dangers that they were putting their son through. That was one of the things that Yuko didn't like about their father. He never accepted that Yuko simply was not a boy, and from time to time, he did nothing but rub it into Yuko's face.

Yolei, of course, wouldn't stand for this. She would always argue back, resulting in him shouting even more. Yuko's father, Hajime, would do nothing but yell at her about how she was blinded by everything that had happened to her when she was a child. He told her that she wasn't thinking sensibly enough. All sorts of things could have happened to Yuko if they didn't do something.

Hajime just would not accept the truth. Hajime refused to take in the fact that Yuko was meant to save the world, as they had been destined to do from birth. Yolei always tried to help him understand, but it never worked.

Yuko eventually ended up falling asleep, though it wasn't in any way a sound slumber. They woke up every thirty or so minutes, most of the time due to nightmares. They couldn't ever sleep well, even if they had been hearing these things for years.

When the sun rose the next morning, Hawkmon ended up tapping Yuko on the shoulder. Yuko sat up and rubbed their eyes before combing their fingers through their lavender locks. "It's getting close to ten," Hawkmon told Yuko. "Come on. We should get up soon."

"Alright," Yuko agreed. They got to their feet and let out a small sigh. They weren't at all ready for the day. They would much rather just curl up in their room. Since it was a Saturday, their father didn't have work. They would have to listen to the constant pestering about Yuko was really a boy and that their gender identity was nothing more than a delusion. Yuko had grown used to dreading the weekends for this very reason.

"Maybe we can get out of the house before your father notices," Hawkmon said. "I think that we should call Ali and see if we can speak to her a little bit more today."

"I don't want to talk to Ali," Yuko frowned, pulling their hair together into its tight bun. "I believe that we already established that she dislikes me."

"I think that you... That you're just afraid to admit the truth," Hawkmon told them with slight hesitation. Hawkmon liked to act as fun loving as possible, but even she knew that it was necessary to get serious, especially when it came to connecting to the other DigiDestined of their generation.

"What truth? I don't think that I'm afraid to admit anything," Yuko said next, zipping up their jacket. The zipper hummed as it moved its way upwards.

"I think that you're just afraid of telling them the truth about your parents arguing," Hawkmon said. "You've never opened up to anybody about it but me, and I think that needs to change soon. You're going to need to talk to them soon, Yuko. We might as well take care of it sooner rather than later."

"I still don't want to tell them. There are other things that I personally find to be much more important," Yuko told their partner. "Besides, it's not like they're going to care. You saw how I treated Ali last night since she asked. I bet that she's going to go and talk to everybody else about it, which will result in me being even more lonely than I already am."

"Maybe we should still try," Hawkmon suggested. "I just want to help you, Yuko. Please, listen to me."

Yuko paused for a moment, their hand clenching into a fist. "I don't know..." they whispered. "Ali isn't going to get it. None of them are. Their parents are all perfect and never argue."

"I think that Everleigh might understand..." whispered Hawkmon. "You know the truth about her... Right?"

"Of course I do. My mother explained it back whenever she joined us five years ago," Yuko said. "But I still don't think that Everleigh is going to get it. She hasn't seen this crap in five years. She won't understand. None of them are going to."

"At the very least... Could you just talk to Ali?" begged Hawkmon. "She was curious enough to ask you about it. That means that she cares for you and wants to hear about the things that you go through. Ali is a good kid. I believe that she'll talk to you if you offer to say something."

Yuko paused for a moment. Hawkmon had a bit of a point. Ali must have wanted to talk to them about something. She wouldn't have approached Yuko otherwise. Talking to Ali wouldn't be too bad.

"Alright," Yuko said, eyes downcast. "We'll take a bus to Odaiba and talk to Ali about yesterday. I can't promise how long that we're going to stay, but it's going to be something, and that's what you want."

Yuko opened the window to their room. Since their room was on the top floor of their two story home, they would need to jump. Of course, they didn't really need to jump when they had Hawkmon.

Hawkmon flew out of the window first. Yuko clambered out not far behind and took hold of Hawkmon's ankles. The Digimon flew them down to the ground. Yuko let go and fell the last few inches onto the grass while Hawkmon flew back up to the window to shut it. Before shutting it, Hawkmon grabbed Yuko's Digivice and tossed it down to them.

"Let's go. The bus leaves in around fifteen minutes, and I'm not in the mood to wait for another one," Yuko declared, starting to walk for the sidewalk pathway.

* * *

Even if the man in black was telling her to wait a week, the woman named Hinoka simply couldn't do such a thing.

She was currently walking through the streets of Odaiba, trailing after one of the DigiDestined. Hinoka made sure to stay around ten feet behind her target at all times. Hopefully, she'd be able to discover a little bit more information about the one she was after.

Despite her terrible wish for revenge, Hinoka actually didn't know much about her target. They hadn't crossed paths in over ten years, after all, so Hinoka didn't have a clue as to anything about her target.

The target turned a corner. Hinoka walked a little faster to catch up. She couldn't lose them. It wasn't all that hard to do, though, as they were with their Digimon partner.

Hinoka dashed closer. Her target walked into a building not long after, hair swaying as they did so. Hinoka ran to the glass door and peered inside. The target walked up to the wall across from the door and pressed a button. A few seconds later, the wall split to show that it had been a pair of doors all along. The target walked through.

Hinoka watched as the doors closed. A frown appeared on her lips. She would just have to wait for a while until the target came back out. She didn't know how long it would be, but she was willing to wait for a while.

Hinoka leaned up against the wall next to the door with a frown. She was a little bit unhappy with the way that the man in black was telling her to lay off for a week. She would much rather take down the DigiDestined right then and there. She had the power to do so. Her partner was ready to fight them. Hinoka would then be able to take what was rightfully hers. The others would as well. She was just waiting for it all to come to pass, as she knew that the man in black was dangerous. Even Hinoka knew that picking a fight with him was a bad idea, and she was full of power.

Hinoka checked a nearby clock that was sitting inside of a tower. The large face of the clock told her that it was eleven. It would be time for lunch soon. The target would have to come out soon.

And when they did, Hinoka would be ready.

* * *

Yuko's hand reached for the door. They prepared to knock, but a few seconds later, their hand fell downwards. "I can't do this," they said with a small sigh. "I have a hundred things that I could do besides this."

"You can do it," insisted Hawkmon from their side. "Ali will be okay with talking to you. I believe in you. Come on. I'll be right here by your side the entire time. I promise."

Yuko nodded and knocked on the door quietly. A few seconds later, they knocked again, louder this time. They knew that Hawkmon would nag at them to knock louder if they brushed their fingers gently on the wood and left. It would be best for everybody if Yuko just allowed the conversation with Ali to take place.

The door opened a few seconds later. Yuko was thankful when it was Ali who opened the door instead of her father. The brunette's face fell when she noticed it was him. "Oh... Hi, Yuko," she said awkwardly, unsure of what she was supposed to tell him to start a conversation.

"Hey..." Yuko said quietly. They looked down at the floor. They, much like Ali, had no idea how to strike up the inevitable chat.

"Ali! Who's at the door?"

Yuko snapped out of it when they heard the voice of Armadillomon. The yellow Digimon waddled closer to the door, curious as to who it was.

Upon seeing that it was Yuko, Armadillomon glared at them. "Oh. It's you," Armadillomon muttered bitterly. "Ali doesn't want to talk to you. Please go away and never come back." He reached for the door and went to shut it.

Hawkmon stuck her wing in the way. "I'm afraid that we're going to have to talk to her anyways," she said. "Please, Armadillomon?"

Armadillomon sighed. Even if he wasn't the biggest fan of Yuko or their attitude, Armadillomon was still good friends with Hawkmon, and he didn't want to ruin that. "Alright. But only if it's okay with Ali," Armadillomon said.

Ali seemed to snap out of her trance at hearing her partner's voice. "Oh... Yes. Come on in, Yuko. You too, Hawkmon," she said, faking a pleasant smile. She opened the door a little bit wider so that Hawkmon and Yuko could enter her home.

Ali led Hawkmon, Armadillomon, and Yuko into her room. "My father's out getting groceries now, so we shouldn't have to worry about being interrupted," she said after shutting the door. She took a seat on her bed.

Ali's room was organized meticulously. There was a bed pushed up against a wall made up of darkly colored wood. The covers were a pale blue color. The walls were beige. The only other furniture in her room was the white bookcase up against the back wall next to the window.

"Alright... I... I..." Yuko tried to say, a small frown on their lips. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Is it about yesterday?" asked Ali.

"Yeah. It is. I shouldn't have acted the way I did. My bad," Yuko said quickly, a tinge of agitation in their voice. Yuko wasn't used to apologizing or doing anything of the sort since they preferred to be alone most of the time, so this was stepping a bit out of their comfort zone.

"Your apology is accepted," Ali said with a small smile. "I figured that you didn't mean all of the things that you said. I... I know that you're under a lot of pressure these days."

Yuko frowned and shot her a frown. "What are you talking about?" they asked, their voice suddenly as hard and jagged as rocks.

"I... I've overheard your parents arguing," sighed Ali. "I went over to your house earlier this month to give you a jacket you left when you came to my house with your mom. I heard them arguing about you being a DigiDestined then. I was hoping that you would tell me about it last night, but... I guess that didn't exactly work out."

"You overheard them talking and didn't think to tell anyone?" Yuko questioned, growing more and more irritated by the second.

"I did tell somebody. I told my father. He said that he hadn't known about it before... I... I think he's worried about you and your mom," Ali said quietly. "And so am I. I don't want you to have to deal with this sort of thing, Yuko."

Yuko rolled their eyes. "I think that you should butt out. This issue has nothing to do with you. This is strictly between myself and my parents. You have nothing to do with my family, so you should back off," Yuko said.

"Yuko..." whispered Hawkmon from her partner's side.

"I know that you're not all that happy with me right now, but... If you ever want my help or you just want to talk, I'll always be there to listen," Ali told them. "I promise."

Yuko looked down at the floor for a few seconds, digesting her words. Not long after, they rose to their feet and walked for the door. "I'll see you later," they whispered. "Bye, Ali."

Yuko walked out of her room and out of the apartment afterwards, Hawkmon close in tow. They shut the door behind themselves once they were outside. "That could have gone better," they sighed. "But it doesn't matter. I apologized to her. Are you happy now?"

"I think so. She's willing to help you. Thats a significant step forwards, if you ask me," Hawkmon said. "You can think about it, and if you want to, we can go back and see her again later today."

Yuko looked down. "Alright... I'll think about it. For now, let's go and get a smoothie. I'm not going home on an empty stomach. I haven't eaten anything all day," they told their partner. They gestured for their partner to walk with them as they left the apartment building.

* * *

The man in black couldn't help but feel anger.

He had told all of his teammates that keeping Sangloupmon from escaping was one of the most important things to their jobs as Eight Shadows members. However, even so, the Digimon had managed to escape and end up being killed.

The man in black had been holding experiments on Sangloupmon. He wanted to figure out how to force a Digimon to Digivolve, as if he could figure that out, then he could gather up a large army of powerful Digimon and take on the DigiDestined, which would hopefully lead to their ultimate demise.

Now, the man in black would have to find some other replacement for Sangloupmon. It wasn't going to be easy, but he didn't really have much of a choice. If he wanted things to go in his favor in the future, he would have to deal with this minor annoyance right then.

The man in black picked up one of his papers, which had the meticulous details of his plans printed on its surface. He could send out a Digimon today. He was planning on sending it out to Odaiba. He didn't want to send one that was too strong, as if he did, then the Eight Shadows wouldn't get to have their fun when taking down the children once and for all.

The man in black pressed a button on the wall nearby. The intercom booted up within seconds. "All Digimon at the Champion stage need to report to the lobby now. There's an important discussion I wish to have with you all," he declared.

His finger lifted from the button. The announcement echoed throughout the building. He took long strides as he walked for the main lobby of his headquarters building. Hopefully, the others wouldn't take too long to reach there. He wanted to have this chat early on so that the Digimon that was to attack could get out there.

There were around twenty Digimon in the large building's lobby when he arrived. He was impressed by their punctuality. However, he noticed instantly that one was missing. Normally, this Digimon was accompanied with the smell of smoke, something that he wasn't detecting at that moment in time.

Seconds later, a Champion Digimon came stumbling in. The man in black raised his finger and pointed at the newcomer. "You," he declared. "Come with me."

The Digimon followed after him, not wanting to object. To rebel against the man in black would no doubt mean death, as nobody had a clue what tricks he was hiding up his sleeve. Not even the Eight Shadows knew who he was.

The Digimon and the man in black reached a room near the center of the building not long after. The man in black snapped. A large metal circle suddenly shone in the lights that turned on at the sound. The circle had blue energy swirling inside of it. A gentle whirring sound could be heard.

The man in black pointed for the metal circle. It was what a new portal looked like these days. Old and small television boxes were easy to destroy. He didn't like that. Due to that factor, he decided to make his own modifications to the portal. Now, it was impossible to destroy due to being made up of Chrome Digizoid.

The Champion Digimon nodded, understanding what he had to do. He walked towards the portal. The second that his fiery skin made contact with it, he vanished. The portal, now out of use, returned to being just a simple metal circle. This way, nothing unpleasant could come through. It was yet another one of the changes that the man in black had made to the portal.

The man in black heard a small ringing sound. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Hello?" he asked.

 _"I found her,"_ came the voice from the other side. _"Her partner is with her."_

"Good. Watch more. See if you can catch her off guard after your grand appearance next week. There has to be some little thing that you can take advantage of. A small pause from time to time or something. I don't care. Figure it out. Things will be much easier that way," the man in black said.

 _"Alright,"_ said the other person. _"I'm heading back to my hideout for now. I can't strike yet, but I think I've gathered enough information."_

"Good," smirked the man in black. "I'll see you later."

The line went dead seconds later. The man in black dropped his phone into his pocket. A smile spread across his face. "This is certainly turning out to be fun," he whispered to himself. "If this is how things are now, I can't wait for when I finally make my appearance."

* * *

Yuko walked out of the smoothie shop alongside Hawkmon. The bird took a small sip of her drink through the straw as Yuko took a seat on a bench. "So... What are we doing after this?" she asked.

Yuko shrugged to themselves. "I don't know. We might head home. God knows what my father will do if he notices I'm gone. Mom will probably lose her crap worrying," they said. "I don't want to go back. I'd much rather stay here and deal with talking to Ali, even if our chats are rocky at best."

"I don't blame you..." Hawkmon sighed before taking another swig of her drink. "I don't really like having to go back to your house either. Your father makes being there miserable."

"Let's stick around at least for lunch," Yuko said after pausing briefly. "I can use a payphone to call my mom and tell her that I'm alright."

Hawkmon nodded as Yuko took a drink of their smoothie. She opened her beak to say something, but she never got the chance. Screams could be heard. She got to her feet. Yuko followed suite seconds later. "What's going on?" they asked, their tone distressed.

"I don't know," Hawkmon said. "It sounds like it's coming from that way." She pointed to the right, further down the street. She took one final drink of her smoothie (which was almost gone by that point), before chucking it into a nearby trashcan. Yuko did the same not long after.

The pair ran down the street, following their ears to the location of the screams. People were running every which way. Yuko and Hawkmon eventually decided to sprint along the sides of the street so as not to be pushed around by the adults trying desperately to escape.

Soon enough, they saw it. The cause of the panic was a Digimon, much to Yuko's distaste. It was a fiery Digimon that was standing on top of a car at that moment. The smell of smoke pierced the air. Yuko swatted at the air in front of their nose, trying to get rid of the smell the best they could, even if they weren't very successful.

"That's Meramon!" exclaimed Hawkmon.

"I guess that we're going to have to take this guy on. I don't see anybody else around doing anything other than running and screaming," Yuko sighed.

Hawkmon nodded before jumping forwards. She tossed the feather on top of her head as if it had been a boomerang. The feather swirled through the air and slammed into Meramon's cheek. The fire Digimon stumbled slightly at the impact. A few moments later, he tumbled off the car roof that he had been standing on.

When Meramon rose, his eyes were filled with pure hatred. He noticed Yuko and Hawkmon as the latter's feather returned to her hand. Meramon didn't say a word as he stalked towards them. "You're DigiDestined," he snarled, practically spitting out the words as if they were poison.

"Yeah. What of it?" Yuko asked, doing their best to keep their voice even.

"I've been sent to kill you," Meramon said. He was towering over Yuko and Hawkmon by this point. He reached out his hand to grab Yuko, but Hawkmon wasn't having any of it. She launched herself at his arm, sending it veering off course.

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," Hawkmon said, flying to keep herself afloat.

Meramon lifted his right leg before letting it out as a vicious kick to Hawkmon's stomach. The Digimon grunted in pain as she was sent flying through the air. Her back slammed into the base of a streetlight, which dented instantly.

"Leave her alone!" Yuko suddenly shouted. They hadn't expected to feel a sudden burst of courage, but they were going along with it for the time being.

Meramon turned to Yuko next. Their heart was thudding in their chest. They could have sworn that it skipped a beat here and there. Yuko backed up a step, holding up their hands defensively, ready to fight. They noticed that the streetlight Hawkmon had hit was now lying on the ground, broken from the hit. The part that held the lightbulb up had broken off. The bulb had fallen off as well, along with the glass that surrounded it.

Yuko instantly made a run for the section of the streetlight pole. They grabbed it and held it up defensively. For the first time in their life, they were truly relieved that they had taken kendo lessons before then. They held up the pole and used it as a shield when Meramon sent a small barrage of fireballs their way. They slid backwards a little bit from the force, but this didn't dampen their courage at all.

Yuko launched themselves at Meramon. Their makeshift kendo stick slammed into Meramon's side. The Digimon stumbled at the impact. Yuko jumped backwards, panting from the sudden use of energy as well as adrenaline.

Yuko's Digivice, which sat on their belt, beeped twice, as if chirping happily. A small patch of data appeared before them seconds later. Yuko, realizing what was happening, grabbed the patch of data and his Digivice. The D-Scanner accepted the data seconds later.

Light surrounded Hawkmon. Meramon had to shield his eyes, but Yuko did nothing of the sort. They watched in awe as the shape of their partner changed.

 _"Hawkmon, Digivolve to... FlameWizardmon!"_

When the light cleared, a humanoid Digimon was standing in Hawkmon's place. FlameWizardmon had a smirk on her lips. "Let's see how this fiery piece of crap can stand in a fight against me," she said. Her grip on her staff tightened as she jumped forwards.

Her staff was swung seconds later. It slammed into Meramon's head. He cried out in pain and tried to send a fireball her way, but FlameWizardmon was having none of it. She jumped up into the air and flipped over the top of his head. She was much smaller than him, and because of that, much swifter when it came to dodging attacks.

"Fire Cloud!" FlameWizardmon exclaimed. She created a fire on the tip of her staff and launched it forwards. The fire spread into the shape of a cloud as it flew towards Meramon. The cloud scooped him up and began to crackle with both red and blue fire.

The blue fire actually burned Meramon due to its intense heat. Yuko watched in awe as Meramon screamed in pain. After around thirty seconds of the fire draining his power, Meramon exploded into a puff of data that flew skywards.

FlameWizardmon watched it happen before she jumped over to Yuko's side. She placed a hand on their shoulder and smiled. "Impressive, huh?" she asked, a hint of pride to her voice.

"That was..." Yuko began, but his voice trailed off not long after. He couldn't think of the right word for it.

FlameWizardmon shrunk and transformed back into Hawkmon not long after. "Amazing?" she questioned. She was practically glowing with happiness over her performance against Meramon.

Yuko nodded her way. They crouched down and pulled Hawkmon into a tight hug, a wide grin on their face.

"Yuko!"

The pair looked up to see Ali running towards them. She was carrying Armadillomon as she sprinted closer. Yuko got to their feet and started walking towards Ali. "Hey," they said, returning to their monotone persona the second they noticed her. They stuffed their hands in their pockets as Hawkmon flew to their side.

"I heard... I heard that there... There was a Digimon... Digimon attack..." Ali said, panting as she slid to a stop next to Yuko. "I came here to check it out..."

"We took care of it," Hawkmon told her. "No need to worry."

"You woke me up from my nap for this?" Armadillomon asked of Ali, looking up at his partner. Ali responded by playfully rolling her eyes.

"We should be heading back to Tamachi," Yuko said. "I'm sure that my parents will be wondering where I am."

Ali grabbed their wrist as Yuko turned away to leave. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "I don't think that you should go back just yet... It's almost one. You need to eat something. Come back to my place. We can eat and call your parents to tell them about what happened."

Normally, Yuko would have denied her in the blink of an eye. They weren't one for human contact of any kind. The only one that they ever opened up to was Hawkmon since she was their partner. However, Yuko felt that they had grown much closer with Ali that day. Maybe hanging out with her a little bit wouldn't be too bad. They'd have to learn to get along with her soon enough, since the two of them were both DigiDestined.

A small smile appeared on Yuko's face. "Alright," they said. "I'll come over."

Ali grinned. She wasn't only happy about Yuko coming over, but also because she had seen them smile for the first time. They had known one another their entire lives, but she still had never seen them smile. It was out of the blue, but Ali still liked it. "Cool!" she chirped. "Come on. I can make us some ramen if you want."

Yuko replied with a simple nod. They followed after Ali in the direction of her apartment. Hawkmon flew a few feet away. Yuko smiled to themselves as they drew nearer to Ali's home. They couldn't help but feel joy. This day had started out somewhat bad, but it was really starting to look up the more that Yuko let it play out around them.

"I'm proud of you," Hawkmon whispered into Yuko's ear. They hadn't even noticed her sneak up on them. For once, they weren't bothered by being frightened. Normally, they would have jumped in shock and begun to shout at whoever had done it, but today, they were in a better mood. They actually felt fine with being scared for the first time in years.

To express this, Yuko turned to Hawkmon with a smile. "You know what?" they asked. Hawkmon tilted her head to show that she was listening. "I'm sort of proud of myself too."

* * *

 _Superior-Creativity: Thanks! And yes, they will. When the first out of the Eight Shadows shows up, there will be a lot of the older DigiDestined, namely Matt, Izzy, and TK. I have plans for some of the others as well._

 _Sorry for the late update on this! I really meant to put it up sooner, but I was feeling sick all week and didn't really get out of bed to type this until now. Having to go to sleep early for theater rehearsal only limited my time more. Hopefully, the updates will be coming out a bit sooner in the future._

 _Also, I'm planning on posting a few more books in the future. They aren't as planned as this one, though, so I can't really say when they'll be coming. However, I can say that one of them is for the game ARMS as an alternate universe. The other one is a Pokemon story with entirely original characters for trainers. Chances are that the Pokemon story is coming first since I have an introduction in mind for it. For ARMS, I only have ideas that take place in the middle of the story. Whoops._

 _Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed! The next chapter will be up soon!_

 _-Digital_


	7. 7) The Fuzzed-Out Man

Surprisingly, the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday managed to pass without a single Digimon fight taking place.

It was now Monday evening. Mila was sitting in her room alongside Agumon as she stared up at the ceiling. A sigh escaped her lips. She was desperate to fight against a Digimon and see what Agumon was capable of.

Mila had heard from Ali that Yuko's Hawkmon had reached the Champion level on Saturday. She couldn't believe it. Now, four of the DigiDestined's partners had managed to Digivolve to the next level up.

In all of the stories Mila heard from her father, his partner had leveled up first. Greymon, MetalGreymon, and WarGreymon had all been the first of their types out of the group of the original eight kids. Mila had figured that sort of status would pass over to her since she was his daughter, but it appeared that was not meant to be.

Agumon was asleep on the top bunk. Mila stared at her Digivice, which she was holding up in front of her face. As his snores echoed throughout the room, Mila closed her eyes. She was starting to think that maybe she wasn't meant to be the leader of this new group. It would explain why Agumon hadn't yet Digivolved to the Champion level.

Mila gulped silently. She didn't like thinking that was the case, but she couldn't really think of any other explanation for why Agumon was being a late bloomer compared to the other Digimon.

She didn't want to wake him up to talk about this. Much like Ali's Armadillomon, Agumon didn't like it when somebody woke him up when he was napping. It was best to just leave him alone.

Besides, Mila already knew what he was going to say. He was going to tell her that it was alright. He would Digivolve soon and Mila would take her place as the leader of the DigiDestined, just as she was meant to. After all, Mila and Agumon had both heard the stories. TK's Patamon had been the last one to Digivolve, and he was one of the strongest. Maybe that would be the case with Agumon.

A small smile appeared on Mila's lips. Even if he hadn't directly given it to her, Agumon's advice was the thing that she needed to push away the darkness in her times of doubt and unhappiness.

* * *

Tanaka Earis hated business dinners.

When their parents were both part of a large computer company that produced all sorts of programs, however, it was a given that dinners were going to be found around every corner. Tanaka had grown used to them over the years, but that didn't meant that they liked them any more now than they had compared to when they were five and just moved to Odaiba from America.

Tanaka had to have their long blonde hair down for this dinner. Their twin ponytails, which they usually wore, weren't exactly allowed when it came to fancy situations such as this. Tanaka finger combed their hair and groaned. They were already missing their typical hairstyle.

Tanaka's green and blue eyes eyed her typical outfit on the bed. Their typical outfit, which consisted of a blue shirt, white jacket, jean shorts, and a green scarf, was draped out on the bed. Tanaka was now wearing a pastel green dress that reached their knees. Their shoes were the same as always, green and white with white socks that stretched up to their upper thigh.

Tanaka walked out of their bathroom and looked to Lopmon, their partner Digimon. Lopmon didn't look all that satisfied, but then again, she rarely did when Tanaka had to go out to fancy dinners such as this one. Lopmon would have to stay home with Terriermon (the one belonging to Tanaka's twin brother Taro), the other Lopmon, and the other Terriermon (both of which were partnered up with Tanaka's father, Willis). Lopmon hated it when this sort of thing happened. That much was no secret.

"You certainly look unhappy today," Tanaka commented as they walked over to their bed. They grabbed a blue belt and wrapped it around their waist.

"I wish that you didn't have to go out to dinner again," Lopmon said. "There are so many other things that your parents' business could do instead, but the bosses always have to choose dinner."

"I would prefer something else, too," sighed Tanaka. They reached for their bronze Digivice and clipped it onto their belt. No matter what anybody said, they weren't about to leave behind their D-Scanner. Digimon attacks were on the rise these days, and one never knew when things would turn to havoc.

"Tanaka... It's time to go..."

Tanaka looked up at hearing the timid voice from their doorway. Their twin brother, Taro, had appeared in the area. His blonde hair was much more tame now than it was normally. His green eyes looked at Lopmon. He had a green jacket on over a white shirt with dark pants on today. Normally, he chose a light yellow short sleeved top with a green bow tie, but that didn't exactly fir the formal attire that business dinners demanded. His light blue jeans and monochromatic tennis shoes didn't either. He was wearing light teal wristbands, a set that was the same color as a pair that Tanaka owned. His turquoise D-Scanner was attached to his belt.

"Alright," Tanaka groaned. They reached for their own teal wristbands and pulled them on. "I'll see you later, Lopmon. Try not to fight with the Terriermons again. I know that you don't exactly get along with them and their mischievous attitudes."

"I'll keep them under control," nodded Lopmon. She waved with her small hand as Tanaka and Taro both walked from the room.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to go," Taro muttered as they made their way into the main area of the house.

"I don't think any of us want to go," came the voice of the twins' mother, Lee. Her blonde hair was tied up into a tight bun. She was wearing a deep blue dress with a white wrap around her shoulders.

"Let's just get this over with. The sooner we go and put in an appearance, the sooner we can come home," said Tanaka.

"We're just waiting on your father," Lee told her. "I wonder where he is... Willis!"

Hearing his name, Tanaka and Taro's father came dashing into the room. He was pulling on his jacket. Willis' hair was slightly disheveled, as he hadn't gotten much time to pull himself together. He had only gotten home an hour before, after all.

"Okay. There he is. Let's get going," Tanaka said impatiently. They walked for the door and opened it. "Bye, Terriermon. Don't mess everything up while we're gone."

Terriermon, the larger out of the two in the house, poked his head up at hearing his name. He had been hiding behind the open door of the fridge, trying to get a snack. "Yeah, yeah. You know me. I won't mess things up that badly," he said. Terriermon snagged a cheese stick before waddling his way over to the couch, which he jumped on with help from his oversized ears.

Willis walked through the door and shot his partner a smile and a wave. Lee, Taro, and Tanaka followed after him. They all piled into the car after Lee locked up the house. Willis pulled the car out of the garage and began driving to the restaurant.

* * *

 _"You need to do something about this."_

 _The woman took a seat in the booth at the restaurant. A look of concern was on her face as she looked at the person across from her, a man. Despite being older than him, the woman was shorter than him by around four or five inches. She didn't let that bother her as she stared at him with a frown._

 _"Do something about what?" the man asked. "I don't know what you're talking about."_

 _The woman sighed and took a drink of the water sitting in a cup before her. "You know what I'm talking about. You haven't been saying anything about it to the rest of us, but... I can tell. I know you. We've been best friends as long as anyone can remember. I know that something is wrong," she said._

 _"Nothing's wrong," the man insisted. "I mean it. I'm perfectly fine with everything in my life."_

 _The woman reached across the table and took hold of the man's hand. She met her bright eyes with her dark ones. Her gaze was pleading, practically begging him to tell her the truth. "I know that she's doing something to you. Isara... Isara isn't as nice as you tell us that she is. I can see that she's hurting you."_

 _"Isara has never hurt me. I mean it," the man told the woman. "Really. I know her best out of everybody in the group. She's not that bad of a person. I think that you're just taking everything to heart."_

 _The woman looked down. She could tell that something was wrong now. After everything that she had been through with the man, he had never told her something like that. She couldn't even remember the last time they had fought. Rude comments like that were out of place. Something was going on, and she intended to figure out what it was._

 _The man looked at her with a smile. "I'm happy with her. We've been together since high school. I think that I'd know it by now if something was wrong. Besides, we can't split up now anyways. She and I have a life to make together."_

 _"I know that she's due in around two months. I also know that you were afraid of telling us the news. Something is wrong. All of us can see it. Please, just let us help you. You can't go through this alone. Isara isn't healthy to be around. Please..." The woman looked down to avoid her voice cracking. She couldn't look into those gleaming sapphires any longer without snapping inside. She had seen all sorts of emotions behind those eyes, but never before had she seen such large amounts of pain. "For me."_

 _"I'm sorry," came the quiet whisper of the man. "I can't leave her when she and I are happy together. I know that you want me to leave her behind. The two of us are a happy couple now."_

 _"I've seen the way that you look at her. Something isn't alright about this. I want to help you get out of this. For your sake." The woman closed her eyes and clenched both of her hands tighter as she held the fingers of the man. "Please. For me."_

 _The man rose to his feet and shot her a small smile. "I'm happy with her. I really am. I promise you that. Now... I need to get home. We're doing a bit of decorating for the new baby's room this afternoon. You know how she likes punctuality," he said. "I'll see you later."_

 _The woman looked down at her water-filled glass. She didn't understand why this wasn't working. For months, years, even, she had been trying to convince him to leave Isara behind once and for all. Unfortunately, that wasn't working. Nothing that she said ever made him think that it was a good idea. She was starting to think that the cause was hopeless._

 _The woman let her head sink into her hands. Why didn't he get it? She could tell that she wasn't good for him. Isara had spoken to the woman once. She had said that the woman had better back off her man, as he was her property and nobody else's. That had been a serious red flag from the start. However, when the woman told the man, he said that Isara would never do something like that._

 _She just wished that he would listen to her, understand her words, and realize that this was all for his good._

* * *

Tanaka, Taro, Lee, and Willis all pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant located in the main area of Odaiba. Tanaka sighed and stepped out of the car once it had come to a stop. Taro undid his seatbelt and followed suit. "How long do you think this is going to take?" Tanaka asked their mother.

"You never know," Lee said with a small sigh. "Sometimes it's an hour. Other times, it ends up being closer to three hours. I guess that we'll just have to see."

Willis locked the car and dropped the keys into his pocket. "Come on. Let's go inside," he told his family. He walked for the door of the restaurant and opened it. The twins and his wife entered before he did.

Willis told the person up at the host stand that they were with the Kamukura Computer Company party. Tanaka only knew that was what he was doing due to all of their experience with these dinner things. They had completely tuned out all sounds so that they could sink into a world of their own imagination and think of whatever else they wanted.

Tanaka had heard from Mikio, one of the other DigiDestined, that Digimon attacks were becoming more and more frequent as time crawled on. Tanaka knew that this was true as well due to the news reports that were continually explaining that monsters were appearing everywhere to destroy everything in their path.

So far, Tanaka had heard of Sato, Miyara, Ali, and Yuko's partners reaching the Champion level. Tanaka was one of the unlucky three people of the group that hadn't been present at any of these meetings. Tanaka, Taro, and Mikio Mirai were the only ones that hadn't yet seen their first digital beasts in person.

Tanaka had always been interested in the Digital World, though they managed to keep their excitement over it inside, which set them apart from Mila Kamiya and others like her. Tanaka wanted to go there and see what it was like. There had to be fun things going on over there. Tanaka tended to get bored easily when it came to the hustle and bustle of normal life. It just didn't get their adrenaline flowing the way that a life of fighting monsters would.

Tanaka was snapped out of her daydream when Taro tapped their arm. Tanaka rose to their feet and walked over to the back room of the restaurant. It was bound to be filled with large numbers of boring people, so Tanaka got ready to begin daydreaming.

Everything seemed normal for business dinners at first. Tanaka looked around. Everybody there was someone they recognized. They had grown used to seeing everybody that worked with her father and mother at these meetings.

As Tanaka took their seat, they saw somebody that they didn't know. It looked like a person, sure, but they were sitting away from everybody else. Tanaka didn't blame them, whoever they were. They would do that sort of thing if they had the chance as well.

Tanaka looked up as another businessman sat down across from them. Great. Another person to comment on how they had grown. Another person to use incorrect pronouns and cause their anger to do nothing but increase.

* * *

A knock came on the door of the Earis home. Lopmon, who had been sitting on the couch with the older Lopmon and the two Terriermons, perked up at the sound. She walked over to the window and peered out through it. The other three were far too focused on the TV they were watching to notice.

A person was at the door. It wasn't somebody Lopmon recognized, however. It looked to be a girl with short dark purple hair that faded out to white at the tips. A red scarf was wrapped around her neck. She had on a dark purple shirt under a black jacket. Pants of the same midnight color covered her legs. Her shoes were black as well. A yellow bracelet was on her right wrist.

Lopmon figured that it was just somebody there to talk about a business or something of the sort. She had heard of those types of people in the past from Tanaka and Taro. Then again, this new person wasn't carrying anything that could possibly be used to promote a business...

The door was knocked on once again. Lopmon scurried away from the window. She didn't want to be seen. If she was, things would take a sharp turn in a terrible direction. Lopmon sat down on the couch and waited for the person to go away.

The knocking on the door became loud and desperate. Terriermon, the younger out of the two, jumped in shock. "Geez, can they shut up? I can't hear _Family Guy,_ " he groaned.

Lopmon held her finger up to her mouth to quiet him. However, it was already too late. The person from outside had kicked the door wide open despite it being locked.

"Lopmon," the girl declared, her voice low and echoing. "I need you to come with me."

Lopmon didn't move a muscle. She didn't want to see what this newcomer was going to do. Her heart was pounding in her chest. How did this person know about Digimon? That couldn't be possible. The only ones who knew were DigiDestined. Maybe a few government officials had an idea, too, but-

Lopmon was snapped out of her thoughts when the girl picked her up. "Come on," she declared. "We have places to be."

Lopmon started to struggle, but she didn't get the chance. The girl snapped the fingers on her right hand. Everything around Lopmon went white. She had to blink furiously to keep from being completely blinded. Even her attempts to keep from losing all sight didn't work, however, as she couldn't see a thing when the light faded.

"Let's get inside. We have to save your partner before things take a turn for the worst," the girl declared. Lopmon realized that they were in an alleyway in the populated area of Odaiba, likely outside of a few restaurants. She could smell rotting food nearby.

The smell was banished from her nostrils when the girl opened a door nearby. She picked up Lopmon and dragged her into the building. Lopmon didn't even get the chance to cry out in shock before she saw where they were.

* * *

A door opened nearby, which startled Tanaka out of their daydreaming. They looked around to see where the noise had originated. Their gaze eventually fell on a pair of figures standing nearby.

It was a girl with sunglasses that covered up half of her face. She was carrying something that Tanaka found interesting. Tanaka let out a gasp and got up from the table, her long hair swishing behind her as she did so. "Lopmon!" she exclaimed in a hushed whisper once she was standing right in front of the girl.

Lopmon jumped into the arms of Tanaka. "Before you ask, I have no idea how I got here," she told her partner. "I was at home one second, and the next... I was here."

Tanaka opened their mouth to say something, but they didn't get the chance. The odd person they had seen before had risen to their feet. "A Digimon," the person said. Their voice was deep and echoed around the entire back room of the restaurant. Voices went silent when they heard the person. Tanaka instantly assumed that it was a man, but even she wasn't sure. The person was wearing all black, so not even his face could be seen.

When Tanaka turned back to face the girl, she was gone. A gasp left their lips as the man lunged for them. They flattened themselves to the floor, nearly crushing Lopmon as they did so. They heard the breath leave Lopmon's digital lungs as they went down.

"What do we do?" Lopmon whispered to Tanaka.

"We fight obviously," Tanaka said. They scrambled to their feet and glared at the man, who was regaining his composure. While Tanaka had been down against the floor, he had accidentally run into a waiter carrying a tray of wine and whiskey. The man ignored all of the flying liquids and lunged at Tanaka again.

In the background of the fight, Willis was taking action quickly. He was gesturing for everybody to get out of the room. Lee was holding onto Taro as the rest of the crowd left the room. "Tanaka!" Lee cried out.

Tanaka didn't turn at their mother's cry. They couldn't afford to get distracted, something that they knew well in the heat of the battle. They jumped onto a table as the man charged at them a second time. The man rammed into the table, unable to stop himself before the impact came. He grunted under his breath and stumbled a few steps backwards in his pain.

Tanaka was on him in an instant. They let their foot fly out in front of them. It slammed into the man's head. He let out a shocked gasp and fell back, hitting his head against the wall.

When the hit to his head finally came, the man didn't end up bleeding as Tanaka expected. His head instead fuzzed, as if it was made of data. Tanaka gasped under their breath, but they weren't focused on his head at that moment in time.

Their D-Scanner had begun to glow. The light was spreading outwards quickly. A small patch of data appeared in front of Tanaka. They held out their D-Scanner until it accepted the data. The Digivice gave out a pair of quick beeping sounds before going on.

The light from the D-Scanner twirled around the room after forging itself into a long and thin strip. The strip slammed into Lopmon's body where she was standing at Tanaka's side. Tanaka took a few steps back. They fell off the table in the process, but this barely bothered them at all.

Lopmon jumped up into the air as the light consumed her in full. She began to change shape amidst the glow. Tanaka stared into the inferno with wide eyes, curious as to what was taking place. They tilted their head to the side slightly and watched as Lopmon Digivolved.

 _"Lopmon, Digivolve to... Turuiemon!"_

Lopmon, or Turuiemon, rather, hit the ground hard. Her legs bent as she landed so that she didn't fall. Her gaze was dark as she stared down the man before her. Turuiemon tightened her grip on the gauntlets in her hands. "Alright," she declared. "You came in here and started attacking Tanaka. I don't really know why, but I'm not about to let you get away with it."

Turuiemon lunged forwards. The man dodged by ducking down and stepping to the side. He wasn't at all bothered by what was happening. He held out his hand and created an orb of crackling blue energy. The sphere flew forward in the blink of an eye. Turuiemon jumped up into the air to get away from it, but she barely got away in time.

"Wow," Tanaka muttered under their breath. They were holding tight to their Digivice as they spoke. "I never would have guessed that Lopmon had that much in her. I'm impressed. Hot damn."

Turuiemon sliced her gauntlet through the air in front of the man. He stepped backwards, but Turuiemon didn't let up. She walked forward a step each time he went back. A small smirk appeared on her lips. She hadn't yet hit him, but she didn't mind that much.

He was in a corner before he realized what was happening. He ended up feeling the final hit from Turuiemon as a slice across the chest. A yell escaped his mouth as he fell forward, clutching at his side. Once again, no blood appeared. Instead, his body went fuzzy, as if it was a projection being disturbed.

"This isn't over," the man snarled angrily. He snapped his fingers, those on his right hand. He disappeared in a puff of dark data. The data flew upwards before disappearing seconds before it hit the ceiling.

Turuiemon turned back into Lopmon not long after, sinking down to stand on the ground. The second her transformation was complete, Lopmon fell into a sitting position. Her eyes screamed that she was exhausted, which prompted Tanaka to run over to her side.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, a look of concern on their face.

"I'm fine," Lopmon insisted. "Just a little bit tired. That's all."

Tanaka shot a small smile to Willis, Lee, and Taro, all of who were standing nearby. "Let me guess... This means that the dinner is over, right?" they asked, hoping and pleading internally that this would end up being the case.

Willis nodded with a sigh. "I guess so," he said. "But... Do any of you know what that was?"

"I thought you would know," Lee frowned, turning to face her husband. "I mean, you're the one that's highly involved in all of this Digimon stuff."

"Let's go home..." Taro whispered nervously. "I don't know about you guys, but... I'm ready to relax a little bit after that mess."

* * *

The man in black practically thundered into his base. His black outfit had been ripped slightly in the battle back in the real world. Everybody that he passed seemed to sense his anger. Nobody spoke a word to him. He was fine with that. In fact, it was probably better that way.

The man took a seat in his office and sighed. Today, he had made his first appearance to the DigiDestined. They didn't have an idea of who he was. Unfortunately, that child, that Tanaka, had somehow managed to best him in battle with their Digimon. He had no idea how that was possible, as he was supposed to be better than a measly Champion.

Perhaps he was still gathering his strength. Yes, that was probably it. If he was at full power, none of those kids would have stood even a ghost of a chance. They would have all been destroyed. He could have started in that restaurant and spread out to the other thirteen in the area.

Unfortunately, that would have meant that his helpers, the Eight Shadows, the Eight Nightmares, wouldn't get to have any fun. He didn't want that. They'd be angry if that took place. They'd likely go after him out of anger and a wish for revenge after he took their chance away. As strong as he was at full power, he didn't want to deal with that. Hell, he couldn't deal with that. Seven Mega level Digimon would ultimately bring him to his end.

The man in black shuffled through his plans once again. Only a few more days until the first Shadow appeared in the real world to the DigiDestined. When that happened, he knew that the group would be rattled to its core. At the very least, the older DigiDestined would. The younger ones had no idea who she was, as the last time she had crossed paths with a DigiDestined, only two of the children had been born, and they were just babies.

He was already getting excited for it. He knew that his hype for this to take place would never match that of Hinoka, but he could still be eager for it to take place. After all, he wanted to see some of those children snap before they ultimately reached their end. It was all a game to him, a game to see how many of them could fall before the new year came around.

The man in black heard a knock at his door. He perked up and turned to face who was standing there. "It's open," he announced.

Soon enough, the door creaked open. Hinoka was on the other side. A smirk was playing on her lips. "Only five more days," she said with a smile.

"Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday, the day you strike," the man in black told her. "Five more attacks before you finally show yourself and make that group lose hope."

Hinoka laughed to herself. "I can't wait for it. They'll finally suffer the way that I did fourteen years ago, back when the DigiDestined thought that it was alright to mess with me," she declared. "It's been so long since I've seen them... I'm excited to appear so suddenly, and with such a grand entrance."

"The other Shadows will be able to join in soon as well. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when the DigiDestined realize that an ally of theirs, one that they know and trust, is actually on the side of evil," the man in black said. "After you, I'm planning on sending in..."

"I already know who you're talking about," the woman ensured him. "I think that will shake them up, too, but there's nothing like the return of an old face... It's going to be wonderful when they finally see me again..."

The man in black shot her a smile and a laugh. Hinoka joined in on the laughter and walked from the room as her giggles died down. The man in black sunk back into his seat. From what he could tell, Hinoka and his second of the Eight Shadows might end up killing off the DigiDestined completely. If that was the case, the other five Shadows would fight them and bring down the group as if it never existed.

The man in black laughed once he was sure that he was alone. There was no feeling like that when a plan came together. His wounds suddenly didn't bother him so much. The thought that the end of the DigiDestined was on the horizon made him feel much better. He knew that thought would satisfy him until the day they finally met their end, and when that happened, he'd be truly happy for the first time in his life...

* * *

 _ **I finally got back to updating this. Woo.**_

 _ **In case you didn't already notice, I published two books since this last chapter. I put up a Pokémon story called The Endless Elementals that you can check out. I also posted the first short story from my random book called All the Little Things. You'll be able to find brief tales from this book in there when I get around to writing them, so you can look forward to that.**_

 _ **I'll be looking forward to hearing your predictions on who you think the man in black is, who Hinoka is to the DigiDestined, and who the man and woman were from the middle of the chapter. I'll tell you guys if you get any of them right, if that at all tempts you.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed!**_

 _ **-Digital**_


	8. 8) Unnecessary Attention

Hinoka had learned many things about herself over the course of her lifetime. For one, she absolutely despised her former husband for everything he stood for. Second, she was impatient. Very impatient.

She still had to wait another six days before she would be able to go forward with her plan and advance on her target. She didn't want to break the rules that the boss had set for her since she knew that it wouldn't end very well. Hinoka had enough sense to at least know that much. She wished that it wasn't the case, but she didn't have many options. She would have to be patient and have her revenge or have it be denied forever.

Hinoka's main purpose as one of the Eight Shadows working underneath the man in black was to get revenge on the people she had once called her family. Things had changed since the days where she could go at home with her husband and spend time with their child. She wasn't at all satisfied with the way things had turned out, but now, things were finally working in her favor, as revenge was finally upon her within the span of a week.

She was ready.

* * *

 _"You weren't at the meeting yesterday."_

 _The man was caught off guard by a voice from behind him. He closed his front door behind him and turned to face the woman that had been standing behind it. She had her arms crossed, but not in a defiant fashion. Instead, her eyes were filled with concern that she simply couldn't find the ability to hide._

 _"Sorry. Isara wanted me to stay at home with her. She wasn't feeling very well. I figure that it's just because she's due in six weeks," the man apologized. The gentle September wind blew around him, ruffling his light hair ever so slightly._

 _"You told us that you would be there," the woman frowned. "You promised me that you would come. And you didn't even call or text to say that you weren't going to make it. Are you sure that you didn't come just because she wasn't feeling well? It's not like you to not tell us about this sort of thing."_

 _"I told you, she wasn't feeling well. I didn't know that it was going to happen. I really didn't. I'm sorry that I wasn't there. Things just... Things just keep popping up that keep me from seeing you and the others. Unfortunate as it may be, there's not much of anything we can do to stop it."_

 _"I want you to tell me the truth," the woman blurted out. She took a step forwards and took the man's wrist in her fingers, her eyes meeting his. "Please. I only ever wanted the best for you and you know that. I've lost count of how many years we've known each other at this point. You know full well that I just want you to be happy."_

 _"And I'm happy with Isara as I've told you many times before," the man said, looking down. He couldn't bear to meet her gaze when she stared at him that way. Pleading, begging him to tell her something, anything to assure her that he was truly okay._

 _"No, you're not! I can see that you've been holding your arm this entire conversation, and I think I know why! She's hurt you! My guess is that you were kept from coming to the meeting because of that," the woman said. She looked at the man's upper arm. He had been gripping his right shoulder with his left hand tightly during the entire conversation. "I... I want you to move your hand. Let me see your arm."_

 _"No, I'm telling you that it isn't like tha-"_

 _"Please!" the woman cried sharply, her voice cracking. "Please... I just want you to be happy. I know that you're not happy with her."_

 _"I have to go," the man suddenly said, tearing his arm from the woman's grasp. She watched as he hurried out to the car. He was still holding his shoulder as he went, but she saw him remove his fingers briefly. The black and blue skin beneath his shirt's short sleeve. She could only watch in sadness as he clambered into the vehicle and drove away, leaving her standing alone on the front porch of his house._

 _Once he was gone, the door to the house opened behind her. She turned to see who had opened it and saw a woman. She had curled light brown hair and sharp blue eyes. "I didn't expect to see you visiting today," the newcomer said._

 _"It was a sudden thing, Isara," the other woman said, a small smile appearing on her lips. She prayed to the gods above that she was making her expression at least a bit convincing. She didn't know what the other woman would do if she got the feeling that she was here to speak with her husband._

 _Isara glared at the other woman for a moment before her hand shot out to grab the other woman's hand. She let out a sharp cry as she turned to meet Isara's eyes. "You will back away from him. He's my husband now. You had your chance to be with him and you didn't take it. Now, he's mine. If you know what's right for you, you'll stay away. If you ever come back here, then I swear to you that you will regret it."_

 _Isara slammed the door in the face of the other woman, who flinched slightly from the force. She looked down, tears still in her eyes from her chat with Isara's husband. "Why won't he talk to me anymore?" she whispered under her breath, staring down at her fingers. She wiped the water from her eyes and headed out to her own car and climbed inside. She had to go and tell her older brother about this. He would know what to do about it. He always knew what she should do._

* * *

Saki walked into their house at around three on Sunday. Their father was home now, as he was off on the weekends, and they had intentions on spending this time with him.

Saki made a beeline for the fridge. They opened up the sleek black door and pulled out the milk. They reached for a glass, which was in a cabinet about six inches above their head. With some stretching of their arm, Saki was able to seize the outside of the cup within seconds. They took the milk and cup over to the nearby counter after kicking the refrigerator door shut with the tip of their foot.

Once they had poured a glass, the milk miraculously not sloshing over the edges of the cup, Saki took a drink. Footsteps came from a nearby hallway, indicating to Saki that their father was coming back from his room. "Hey," Saki said simply, wiping the milk mustache from their face. "How's your day been going?"

"I could ask you the same thing," came the cool, relaxed voice of Matt Ishida as he looked to his child. "I thought you were going to be home hours ago."

"I was with Mila," Saki explained. "We hung out a little bit longer than we were planning on it." They took another drink from their cup. "What about you? You never answered my question, Dad."

"I slept in for the first time in ages," Matt told them. "It's a relief, let me tell you."

"I figured," Saki smiled to themselves. "What about Mom?"

"She wanted to go out and get her nails done," said Matt. "She said that she hadn't done it in a while, which is right, as a matter of fact. It's been years since she last went to get her nails done."

"You've actually been keeping track?" Saki asked, raising an eyebrow in Matt's direction.

"It was an estimate," Matt explained.

Saki nodded after taking one last swig of their milk. "That sounds a bit more accurate. You're not the type to keep track of those things. You were never the organized type. I mean, your bathroom is a complete wreck," they joked, a small smirk appearing on their lips.

"I've seen worse," Matt assured Saki.

"Yeah. I've heard multiple times from Mila's mother that her father is one of the messiest people this side of China," Saki said.

"You got that right," Matt agreed.

Saki walked over to the living room on the other side of the wall that separated the main area of the apartment from the kitchen. Saki plopped down on the couch and picked up the remote, pointing it at the TV. "Things are surprisingly calm today, I have to say," Saki said. "The past few days have been a bit of a mess."

"Yeah. There have been more Digimon attacks in the past three days than there have been in the past year or so. I thought that things were getting better, but I suppose that I was wrong," Matt sighed, sitting down next to Saki on the couch.

"Yeah. Salamon, Veemon, Armadillomon, Hawkmon, and Lopmon have already evolved to the Champion level," Saki told him.

"Speaking of Digimon, where's Gabumon?" Matt asked.

"He's upstairs. After I got back from Mila's, he was too tired to do much of anything. Poor guy. He doesn't get enough sleep these days," Saki said with a small shake of their head.

"My Gabumon is still asleep to. He says that he's been up to all sorts of things lately, cleaning up the apartment and such while I'm at work. I guess that it could be tiring, especially how dirty a certain someone in this house is."

"I think he's referring to you when he says that stuff," Saki snorted. "In fact, no, it's not a matter of if I think that's the case. I know that's the case."

"Whatever," Matt groaned to himself.

The TV rattled on for a little while before the image cut itself off. Matt sighed and rolled his eyes. "I hope this doesn't mean that I have to go back to the TV station to make sure things aren't going horribly wrong. I swear, some people working there haven't a clue how to do their jobs," Matt grumbled.

"I don't think that's what's going on," said Saki. They pointed to the TV with a frown. "Look at that. That's not a normal power cut."

Saki's words proved to be correct a few moments later when the screen suddenly flashed red. A pair of words appeared on the screen, reading 'BREAKING NEWS' in stark, black letters. Saki instinctively reached for their Digivice. They had a feeling that Digimon would have something to do with this sudden breaking news. After all, no news outlets had yet reported on the sudden outbreak of Digimon that had started in the past few days. The time was finally there, it seemed.

A reporter appeared on the screen, wearing a sharp black suit. Her hair was brown and cut short on either side of her face. Her brown eyes were gleaming with a fiery passion, excited as to what she was about to say. _"This is Akemi Hamana with Sakuga News. I'm here with a breaking story regarding the monsters that have appeared in the past few days. Data has been gathered from people that were present in the previous monster crises, and now, we have enough concrete information for the public,"_ the reporter explained, her voice filled with bubbly cheeriness.

"What do you know? It's about Digimon," Saki said sarcastically with a shake of their head. "I can't wait to see how badly they butcher this sort of explanation."

 _"These monsters are known as Digimon. They have appeared three times in recent memory, the first time in 1999, the second in 2002, and the final time in 2005. Many people suspected that the monster attacks had ended following the incident in 2005, as we managed to go many years without anybody falling victim to these cruel monsters,"_ the reporter, Akemi, apparently, prattled on.

"Cruel? They couldn't be farther from the truth," said Saki with a sigh. "They just don't get it, do they?"

 _"Digimon have been around for quite some time, as you can see. It's been many years since the last time this sort of thing took place, but it appears that they are back. Things are not quite so bad this time as they have been in the past, but things could most certainly be better,"_ the reporter continued. _"Another rather interesting thing to note is that Digimon have been written about many times before. A book series written by a young adult author, Takeru Takaishi, details what he believes the truth is behind these monsters. While we can't say for sure whether his works are fact or fiction, we can say that he might have some sort of information regarding these creatures. The Sakuga News company has already sent a few reporters to Takaishi's house to speak with him about what he thinks is the truth about these recent attacks. As of now, we haven't gotten an answer at his front door, which is rather unfortunate."_

"I can already tell TK isn't going to be very happy about this development," Matt said with a small sigh and a shake of his head. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing the number of his younger brother. "I can hear his rage already."

 _"This ends this breaking news report. We will reveal more about this story as it develops. Things will hopefully unfold more and more in the coming days. Information about these Digimon will hit the public as soon as we learn about it ourselves. If you want updates on this story as more is unveiled, be sure to closely follow the Sakuga News website for all the information you could ever want or need about the Digimon crisis. This is Akemi Hamana signing out."_

Saki turned off the TV with one swift motion. They looked up at the ceiling with a deep frown as their father's phone beeped softly. The phone was ringing on the other end, though TK hadn't yet picked up.

The phone went to voicemail seconds later. TK's voice rang out its chipper automated speech for a few moments afterwards. Matt sighed and hung up the phone. "Nothing," he told Saki, though his child had already surmised as much from overhearing things through the phone's speaker.

"I bet he's trying to keep reporters away from his family at the moment," Saki told him. "I'm sure he'll call you back as soon as he gets the opportunity to. It's just a matter of when at this point."

"I hope it doesn't take too long," Matt said. He scrolled through his phone's contacts a little bit longer before he came upon Kari's number. She was likely with TK. The chances of her answering the phone were rather slim if her husband hadn't picked up, but Matt was willing to try it if it meant he would get at least a little information from her.

The cell phone beeped three times, the sound dull and barely hearable, before something changed. A voice came from the other side of the phone, which prompted Matt to put the device on speaker so Saki could hear as well. _"Hello? Matt?"_

Sure enough, it was Kari. Matt could tell that something was going on, as he could hear his younger brother's angry voice from the other end of the call. He couldn't make out any words, but it most certainly was TK. "I heard about some reporters coming to talk to TK," Matt said. "It sounds like they're already there."

 _"Yeah... They're telling us that we must know something about the Digimon issue since TK wrote books about everything that happened to us all those years ago,"_ Kari explained. _"He's trying to get rid of them, but it isn't working."_

"God, I can already tell that he's not going to be very happy about this once they leave," Matt remarked with a frown.

"How are Chris and Sato doing?" Saki questioned, hoping that Kari would be able to hear her despite her being a bit further from the phone when compared to her father.

 _"They've been avoiding the door the best they can. They're with the Digimon, as a matter of fact. We know that the reporters will flip if they happen to see Gatomon, Salamon, or either of the Patamon,"_ Kari went on. _"It looks like they're leaving, as a matter of fact... Thank goodness."_

The faint sound of a door shutting could be heard from Kari's end of the phone call. A sigh of relief followed shortly thereafter. It sounded a lot like Saki's uncle, so she instantly assumed that it was TK.

 _"I think I'm going to have to let you go for now so TK and I can talk about this. I'll talk to you later, Matt,"_ Kari said.

"Yeah. Tell TK to call me once this is all sorted out," Matt told the phone's speaker.

 _"I will. Bye,"_ Kari said. Shortly after, her end of the line fell silent, showing that she had hung up. Matt followed suit shortly afterwards and turned to Saki, who was staring down at the ground.

"That was a mess," Saki grumbled, looking to her father. "I can only hope that the reporters aren't going to take to the news with this. I know that's going to make Uncle TK unhappy."

"Yeah. He told me that he was going to be spending the day with Kari and their kids today since they've been busy lately, so to be interrupted wasn't at all pleasant for him," Matt said.

"I hope no other reporters go to bother him... Or us, for that matter. I pray they don't figure out that we're related to him," Saki said quietly, leaning back. She propped her hands behind her head as something of a cushion.

"For now, all we can really do is relax and hope that nothing happens," Matt told her. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV once again. "What do you want to watch?"

"Anything's fine," Saki replied simply. "Just so long as it's not the grating voice of that stupid reporter from the breaking news thing. I've only heard her talk once, but I'm already sick of it."

"Me too," Matt agreed. "Me too."

* * *

Over at the Takaishi household, TK let out a sigh as the door finally shut. He peered out the window just to make sure that the reporters were really leaving once and for all. He watched the news van pull out of his driveway and cruise down the street and away from his house before he finally let the curtains close.

Kari was on the phone with Matt. She was finishing up the conversation at that moment, saying that she had to talk with TK about what had just happened. He was glad that they were going to get a moment to talk about this.

Once Kari had finally hit the button on her phone's screen to end the call, TK took a seat on the couch in the living room. Kari trailed after him and sat down as well. "That... That wasn't very pleasant," Kari said simply, staring down at the ground. TK could feel the uneasiness coming off her, and it made him frown as well.

"I can't help but agree," TK murmured to himself. "I hope that's a one time occurrence. I really do."

"Hey! Is it okay for us to come down now?"

The voice of their older child pierced through the air. Chris didn't even wait for a reply before bouncing down the stairs, Patamon sitting on top of her head as he always did. Sato followed shortly after, Salamon in his arms. Gatomon bounced down the stairs while TK's Patamon flew down to his partner to perch on his lap.

"Thankfully, yes," TK told her as Chris sat down next to him on the couch. "They're gone."

"What did they want?" Sato asked fearfully. He curled up at Kari's side, which prompted her to wrap an arm around his shoulders. His mother could sense his worry, and she was hoping to dispel it with this simple action.

"It's nothing you need to worry about," Kari assured him with her typical and cheery grin. Sato clearly wasn't convinced, but he didn't want to push the issue any further. Instead, he moved a little bit closer to Kari, closing his eyes nervously. His partner decided to reposition in his arms, but Sato didn't let his eyelids flutter open to watch.

"If anybody happens to talk to you two about the Digimon attacks as of late, you know what to do, right?" asked Kari.

"Yeah. We act like we don't know a thing. It's just like we've been doing our entire lives," Chris said simply. "Why bring it up? Wait... It has something to do with those weird reporters that were just here, doesn't it? Were they asking about the Digital World or something?"

"Yes," TK responded with a frown. "They were."

"So, basically, from now on, we need to act like we don't know a thing about any Digimon as we always have, but also avoid reporters if they have any questions for us about your knowledge of Digimon?" asked his daughter.

"Pretty much," Kari replied with a small but forced smile.

"I think we can do that. Right, Sato?" Chris asked, looking around her parents at her younger brother.

"Yeah..." Sato said quietly, clearly still a bit put off by what had taken place that morning. However, nobody tried to push more out of him, instead just sitting in the silence. It was nice to have silence, especially after the events that had just taken place. They were all more thankful for it at that moment than they ever had been.

* * *

"Tomorrow, we dispatch our next Digimon."

Hinoka was back in the Digital World now. She had grown bored of sitting in her base and waiting, thinking about her revenge each and every second, so she had decided to return to the Digital World. Now, she was glad that she had done so. After all, she was always happy to hear of the plans of the man in black, especially when they involved sending another monster after those kids and their dreadful parents.

"Who are we having go after them this time?" asked one of the other men in the room.

"I haven't yet decided, but I can assure you that it will be one strong to at least show them that we mean business. We'll have to be careful, though. The past few times that we have tried to send Digimon after them, things have not gone well. The little brats and their creatures keep on growing. If even one more of the other Digimon evolves to the next level... They'll be harder to eliminate at the end of the day when you all finally get to have your revenge," said the man in black.

"Think about it this way. The stronger they get, the more fun it will be to exact our revenge in some way or another," Hinoka told everybody in the room. A few murmurs of agreement rose up from the other seven people around her, which made Hinoka smirk to herself. She was proud of herself for having done something that earned her this much attention from the other members of the Eight Shadows.

"I guess you could look at it like that," the man in black agreed, though he was rather miffed, as his shoulders were tense and knotted. He wasn't very satisfied with the fact that Hinoka had gotten even a bit of respect from the others, as he thought that he was the only one worthy of such praise.

"Tell me that you'll let one of us go out sooner," said one of the other women in the room. "Please."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm going to send out five or so more Digimon before Hinoka strikes. She'll soften up the group at least a little bit by exacting her revenge on the member of the squad," the man in black explained.

"Are you going to kill your target?" asked one of the men, turning to face Hinoka.

"No," Hinoka answered quickly. "It's rather simple. I'm not going to kill anyone, as I have... I have other plans in mind."

"Would you mind sharing them with us?" the man questioned, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

"I would mind, actually," Hinoka said. "Which is why I'm not revealing anything until I can actually put my plot into action. If I have to wait for my chance at revenge, you will have to wait for your chance to hear about what I'm going to be doing."

"Fine. Be difficult if that's truly what you wish," the man said in return, his tone sharp and dissatisfied.

"Do not argue like children," commanded the man in black, holding up one hand to silence the two. "You will have more time for petty squabbles after things have progressed further along."

Neither Hinoka nor the man said anything, instead looking at the ground in silence, fists clenched and glares intense. They were silent for a moment before the man shook his head and sighed. "I have to go somewhere. Back home. I'm sure that they'll wonder where I've gone off to."

"Fine. Run away like a pathetic child, if that's what you wish to do," mumbled Hinoka under her breath, ensuring that she was quiet enough to avoid being heard.

The man walked out of the room to cross over through the gate, leaving the other seven members of the Eight Shadows group together. They glanced around between one another before looking to their leader, the man in black. "Dismissed," he said simply with a wave of his hand to send everybody else in different directions.

* * *

Yuko was sitting in their room when they heard a door slam. They jumped in silence. Hawkmon was asleep on their bed, and fortunately, the bird Digimon wasn't startled awake by the sound. Yuko looked down at the ground before mustering the courage to leave their room. They cracked the door and peered out into the main area of the apartment.

Yuko's mother and father were standing in the hallway, arguing once again. Hajime Akichi was back from whatever business he had gotten up to on a Sunday afternoon, and he was far from being in a good mood. Yolei had sensed this as soon as he had walked into the apartment, which led to her suddenly rising from her place on the couch. "Where were you?" Yolei asked, a frown on her face. "I woke up this morning, and you were just gone! No texts, no notes-"

"I had other business to take care of!" came the barbed reply of Hajime. "It's none of your concern. You don't give a damn about what I do anyways. You never have, and if you ask me, you never will. Just let me do whatever I want to without you getting in the way!"

Yolei let out a sigh and started to turn away, but before she could, she saw a tattoo on the arm of her husband. His shirt sleeve had come up enough to show a marking on his upper arm, one that she was positive hadn't been there before. "What... What is that? A tattoo? When did you get a tattoo?" asked Yolei, a frown on her face.

"That's none of your business! If it was important to you, I bet that you would have noticed by now! I've had it for days now!" Hajime snipped. "Just leave it alone. It isn't important. I got a tattoo without telling my dear wife. How tragic is that? It's almost like I don't care about what you think of my life. Oh, wait..."

Hajime stormed away in the other direction after spitting out this remark. He stomped into his bedroom, the one he shared with Yolei, before letting the door slam shut. It was so loud that Yuko jumped what seemed to be a foot in the air. They held a hand over their chest to stabilize their breathing a few seconds later. Even if Yuko's parents had been fighting for years, as long as they could remember, as a matter of fact, they still hadn't quite gotten used to the noisy slams of doors that came at all times of the day. Whether Hajime was off doing some mischievous thing or another or Yolei had just tried to talk to him, the loud shutting of doors was something that Yuko was still startled by now.

Yolei was in the kitchen as far as Yuko could tell. They could hear something coming from that general direction. It took them a moment to figure out what it was. Yolei was crying. Yuko hadn't ever seen their mother cry. Yolei always tried to remain strong after she fought with Hajime over some random occurrence or another, but she couldn't keep up her front anymore, it seemed. Yuko slowly crept out of their room and saw Yolei, sure enough, standing in the kitchen, her glasses sitting on the counter beside her with one hand over her eyes. Tears glistened in the gentle overhead lighting and choked sobs left her lips. Yuko watched her in a stunned silence before turning the other way and retreating back into their room, not wanting to speak to anybody about what had just happened.

Yuko sat down on their bed next to their Digimon partner. They stroked Hawkmon's feathers gently, thinking about the most recent fight. They had long feared a potential divorce between their parents, as it was clear that they simply weren't suited to living together. However, now that it seemed to be happening for real, Yuko wasn't ready for it. It was one of the last things he wanted in the entire world. This would stop the fighting, sure, but it would be a huge change, and Yuko wasn't exactly the most adaptable person in the city of Odaiba.

* * *

 _ **GUYS I FINALLY DID IT I UPDATED AGAIN**_

 ** _I got a random burst of inspiration after leaving this story alone due to writer's block. Updates should be more consistent from here on out. I hope. I pray._**

 ** _Anyways, I really hope you guys enjoyed this update. Quick note about the canon of this story though: Digimon Adventure 02 ended with TK saying that everybody got their own Digimon, blah blah blah. However, I'm not the biggest fan of that sort of ending. Plus, there aren't any Digimon just chilling in the city in Tri, so I'm saying that part was fiction just for TK's books. That's how it is here._**

 ** _That said, I'm going to go now. It's past midnight here and Digimon Frontier binges can only keep me awake for so long. Farewell!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	9. 9) Lady of Darkness

Hinoka had been passing by a nearby TV shop when she first saw what was on the news. She had heard that something involving Digimon was on the news now, and sure enough, that was the case.

It was a reporter at the house of a certain someone that she knew all too well. She couldn't help but glare and cross her arms. He didn't look very happy, and if she were to admit the truth, Hinoka would say that she was happy about that. He deserved whatever hell the world decided to give him. There were others that didn't quite agree, but Hinoka didn't care. She knew that there was truth to her thoughts regardless of the words of others.

Somewhere in the background, Hinoka was sure that she could see a few other people. One of them was definitely familiar, and not in the good way. Hinoka's fingers automatically clenched into a fist. She had to bite her tongue to keep from letting out a cry of anger or punching something. She couldn't let her emotions keep her from this now. She had waited over fourteen years for this. She wasn't about to let it drag on any longer than it already had.

The best thing Hinoka could do was wait. She took in a deep breath and began to walk away. A small voice in the back of her head told her to go back, to look at that television and learn what she needed to so that she could take her revenge sooner instead of waiting, but all the common sense that Hinoka possessed managed to convince her to keep going somehow.

* * *

Others were rather focused on the Digimon shenanigans that had been taking place recently, but not everyone. A few people were still living in the quiet peace of ignorance, choosing not to bother themselves with the chaos ensuing in the world around them.

One such person was Mikio Mirai. He knew that he should have been a bit more concerned with this than he was, but he still decided to not bother with the Digimon. Instead, he was sitting on the balcony connected to his room, sketching out roughly a potted plant that was sitting on the railing.

Mikio had dark hair that swept to one side and purple eyes framed with thin glasses. He had a light gray jacket with sleeves too long for his arms over a white shirt. He had black jeans on with dark shoes as well. A golden lanyard was hanging from his neck, the bottom being attached to a marker's cap. He had his fingers around a pencil as he continued to sketch the small flower inside of the pot in front of him.

The weather was rather nice, so Mikio had decided to go outside instead of remaining hunched over at his desk. However, he still wasn't a fan of the sounds that came with the outdoors (mostly since he could occasionally hear the buzzing of bugs going by, which always frightened him), Mikio had the TV on inside. The sliding door that led into his apartment was cracked so Mikio could hear what was being said.

 _"The appearances of these monsters have grown much more frequent in the past few days. They are Digimon, the strange monsters that have been known to appear in this area since 1999, when they made their first major appearance in the days around August first. It is unknown why they have suddenly appeared once more, as activity from these creatures had been falling for twenty-five years until recently."_

Mikio let out a sigh. He turned to his right, where a small Digimon of his own was sleeping. She had the appearance of a small hamster with wings, her hair being a purple color. Tsukaimon had been asleep for quite some time now, taking advantage of the quiet she shared with Mikio. With Mikio's parents, Meiko and Rantaro, out at work for the day, Mikio and Tsukaimon had the apartment for themselves. Tsukaimon had decided to sleep while Mikio wanted to draw without the clicking of Meiko's fingers on a keyboard to distract him, even if it was only to last for a while.

Mikio had heard that the others had been meeting up to discuss the impending threat. He was sure that Mila was happy about it. She had always been too adventurous for her own good, so she would no doubt be fond of this sudden outcome. The others seemed a bit more hesitant to embrace whatever destiny had been set before them by the digital gods, and Mikio had to go along with them.

When the others had decided to meet up to discuss the new issues that had arisen, Mikio had declined to make an appearance. He didn't want to involve himself with things of this nature. Instead, Mikio wanted to live out a regular life alongside Tsukaimon, who he had partnered with from a young age due to the blood of the chosen ones flowing through his veins. His mother had once been like him, back when she was younger, so he had ended up in a similar condition with a partner to care for.

Mikio looked over his work of artistry and set down his notepad. His sketch looked rather nice, if he did say so himself. Tsukaimon would be sure to appreciate it once she had woken up from her nap. He hoped that his parents would enjoy it when they arrived home from work in a few hours.

Mikio decided to pick up Tsukaimon and take her inside. He was done doing what he wanted to out on the balcony, so he figured that he should go on and head inside. After all, he still had to make sure that his mother's partner Digimon was still doing alright. Last Mikio had been aware, Meicoomon had been in the bedroom his parents shared. Meicoomon didn't want to infringe on Mikio's personal space by going into his room, so she was in the room where she slept with her partner and said partner's husband.

Mikio paused, looking at the television, before sitting down on his bed and setting Tsukaimon beside him. The reporter on the screen was still talking, so he decided to listen before swapping the channel over to something else that didn't stress Mikio out as much.

 _"Another monster has just been sighted! I repeat, another monster has just been sighted! On the outskirts of Odaiba, a flying dragon is soaring overhead! One of its wings took down a plane a few minutes ago, which managed to safely land in the water instead of crashing into the ground! All people are advised to go into their homes to avoid potential injury at the hands of this creature!"_

Mikio gasped to himself. He lived on the edge of Odaiba, close enough to the water that he could see it from his balcony. He dashed outside after practically throwing the sliding door open. Mikio scanned the skies with his amethyst eyes before he finally spotted what the news had been talking about.

Sure enough, it was a Digimon. Mikio wasn't sure of what Digimon it was in particular, as he had never bothered to learn the names of Digimon outside of the necessary ones such as those belonging to himself, his mother, and his fellow DigiDestined. He wasn't entirely sure how to figure it out, either. Mikio could barely work the Digivice that he had been holding onto for quite some time, much less use it to identify one a Digimon. Hell, Mikio wasn't even sure if it _could_ identify a Digimon.

A ring came from the front area of the apartment. Mikio had been told from a young age not to open the door unless he knew who was on the other side. After dashing up to the door and peeking through the small hole in the center of the wooden rectangle, he opened it to reveal none other than Rei Izumi, who was holding their laptop tightly. It was clear that they were out of breath, though Tentomon, who was flying beside them, seemed unbothered by it.

"R-Rei? What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming over," Mikio remarked, eyes wide in shock at Rei's sudden appearance.

"I-I was going to buy an accessory for my computer when I heard about the Digimon attack... You're the closest one, so I decided to come see you..." Rei explained in between heavy breaths. Rei had never been the best when it came to physical activity due to their preference of technology, something Mikio knew well, being in a similar situation but with arts instead of electronics.

"What are we supposed to do? Is there anybody else nearby?" asked Mikio. He knew well that Rei had much more knowledge of the Digital World than he ever would, so asking them would be the best course of action, it seemed.

"Not really... I heard that thing wrecked a plane... We have to take it down if we want to keep the people safe..." Rei replied.

"But how can we do that? Tsukaimon hasn't Digivolved yet! She's still just a rookie!" cried Mikio.

"Speaking of, where is Tsukaimon?" Tentomon asked, noticing the absence of the flying hamster.

"Asleep in my room," Mikio answered. "I doubt she'd want to leave if we were just going to be fighting, though..."

"I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice. Come on," said Rei, gesturing for Mikio to follow them. "Grab Tsukaimon and get ready. I highly doubt this battle is going to be an easy one."

"Alright," Mikio nodded hesitantly before dashing off to get Tsukaimon so they could leave to take care of the new enemy.

* * *

 _"And... And there was this bruise on his arm... I have no idea what to do. If he hasn't told any one of us about it, he's not going to be happy when we say that we know the truth it, but I don't want this to go on any longer... He doesn't deserve to go through this... I've known him for so long, so I know well that he needs to be happy without Isara ruining things for him like this... What do you think?"_

 _The woman was sitting on the couch in the apartment of her older brother. He was looking at her in concern as she explained all that she knew about the scenario involving the blonde man and his relationship with his wife._

 _"I agree," came her brother's reply, his gaze hardened and serious. He had only gotten like this when one of his own was at risk, and that most certainly applied to the matter at hand, even if the danger was of a different nature than the kinds he had faced for years upon years in the past. "Even if he's mad about us knowing, we need to confront him about this. If she's really hitting him, we can't let it continue."_

 _"I don't even think that his family knows it... At least one of them can sense it, though, and I'm positive you know exactly who that is," the woman said._

 _"Yeah. I get what you're saying. I'm sure he knows. However, he also knows that anything he was meant to know about the situation he already would know. That's likely why he's been staying as quiet as he can... But once he hears about this, I doubt he'll as willing to go along," her brother assured her. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. "Don't worry. We'll be sure to help him out."_

 _"Thank you for your help... Isara is due soon... I just hope that this doesn't keep him from being around his daughter... If Isara is really hitting him, and I'm sure that she is, then she shouldn't have any custody of the child... I'd even be willing to help him raise his daughter himself if it would keep him away from Isara."_

 _"I'm positive he'll need your help after this is resolved, because once it's over, he isn't going to be seeing her for quite some time, and that's putting it lightly." Her brother's hand clenched into a fist as he stared at the ground. He had known something had been wrong for a while now, but now that he was sure of what was happening, he wasn't going to be holding back._

* * *

"So, how do you think this is going to work out?"

Hinoka was back in the Digital World, standing in front of the man in black. Her gaze was hardened, blue eyes shining with a sadistic sheen. After hearing about a Digimon attack back in the real world, she figured it would be for the best if she returned to the hideout that she shared with the other seven members of the Eight Shadows to ask about what they had done in her absence.

"Our other attempts have been unsuccessful thus far, but I have faith that things will turn around for us soon," the man in black told her, his arms crossed. "The days are counting down now, which means that you'll be able to exact your revenge soon. You'll see."

"I'm ready," Hinoka said instantly. "I've been waiting fourteen years to see my daughter again. As soon as I get the chance, I'm going to take it and show that awful ex-husband of mine what he caused to happen by leaving me. Oh, the look on his face..."

"I've been careful about the attacks. I held back for so long despite having the power to do things before this organization was founded so that we would have a secure victory once it began," the man in black explained to her. "You see, even if every single one of these assaults results in an evolution, there's no way they'll be powerful enough to fight back and take a win. A few measly Champions cannot stand against a Mega. They will not win."

"Which works out perfectly for me," Hinoka smiled. "I'm okay with an easy victory, just so long as I win at all. I don't care about how things go to lead up to the reunion, just so long as it comes."

"Good. The others are a bit more eager for something else, which means that this works out well." The man in black turned on a nearby screen that showed a large Digimon cutting through the air above the water on the outskirts of Odaiba. "I'm sure that some of them will be arriving soon. I'm positive that the fighting will begin in a matter of mere minutes."

"And once it happens enough, they'll feel confident that they can defeat us since we've been sending weaklings their way. However, once they face us in combat, I'm sure they'll realize that is not the case. Once I take her back, they will not be able to abduct her again. I refuse to let my daughter be taken a second time. Those awful chosen ones have been a thorn in my side for long enough. That all ends as soon as I take my revenge."

"For now, we just need to watch what happens. The fight appears to be starting, Hinoka. Get ready." The man in black gestured to the television screen, which showed a bolt of electricity cracking through the air to strike the draconic Digimon in the side. "The fun begins now..."

* * *

Mikio had explained the situation to Tsukaimon, who had awoken, by the time that he, Ren, and their partner Digimon had arrived at the scene. He looked up, Tsukaimon still in his arms, to see the large draconic Digimon still circling overhead, powerful wings beating to keep itself afloat. Ren sat down on a nearby bench, close enough to the water that one could see the blue from where the quartet was, and opened their computer. They clicked away at the keys quickly. Mikio could barely keep up with how fast they were going, his eyes wide as he tried to soak in all the information.

"That's Airdramon," said Ren. Tentomon looked over their shoulder, perched on the back part of the bench. Ren looked up at him for a moment before continuing to read. "Champion level dragon Digimon that specializes in propelling itself through the sky. With a beat of its wings, it can knock nearly anything out of the sky."

"Just like the plane from before!" exclaimed Mikio. "I think that all the other planes in the area are steering clear... That's a good thing."

"But it's just us. It's going to be a while before anybody can arrive and help us out, which means that we're on our own," Ren told him. "Come on. Let's try it at the very least."

Tsukaimon looked up at Mikio. "I guess it's time for me to get in on the action," she remarked. Mikio nodded to himself before letting Tsukaimon fly from his arms and up to Airdramon. Tentomon followed after her into the skies above. They were incredibly small compared to the huge Airdramon, making both of the Rookies look like mere specks in comparison.

"Super Shocker!" Tentomon cried out. Electricity crackled between his wings and slammed into Airdramon's tail. The large dragon turned at the hit and roared in anger. A large wind had formed because of his sudden exhale, leaving Tentomon struggling to stay afloat. Eventually, the gale proved to be too much for him, sending him flying onto the top of a nearby skyscraper, skidding across the roof until he could gather his bearings and begin flying once again.

"That's not a good sign," murmured Ren. "Tentomon! Don't push yourself! You won't perform as well in battle when you're exhausted!"

Tentomon heard Ren's cry, but wasn't able to show such since he was so focused on Airdramon's wild assault. He flew up about ten feet to dodge a rogue tail swipe from the large dragon.

"Purple Haze!" shouted Tsukaimon next. A large puff of smoke left Tsukaimon's body through her mouth, quickly going towards Airdramon. The cloud caused the Digimon to roar out a second time to keep from breathing it in. The smoke would leave Airdramon paralyzed and barely able to fight, which was not good for it at all.

"It would have really been nice if Airdramon had been impacted by that... We would have been able to openly attack it then," Ren muttered.

Tsukaimon wasn't allowing this failure to get her down. Instead, she flew right up to Airdramon's face and inhaled. "Friendly Fire!"

A small puff of fire left Tsukaimon's mouth, instantly shooting itself into Airdramon's eyes. Airdramon let out yet another screech, this time in pain, as it started to thrash backwards. Shortly after, it fell into the water just outside Odaiba, causing a large column of water to shoot upwards. It crashed against the coastline and flooded the street nearest to the sea. Ren covered up their laptop just to be sure that it wouldn't end up coated in water. Luckily, the only water that reached Ren and Mikio was a light layer of mist that rained down gently from overhead before ceasing just as quickly as it had started. Once they had deemed it safe, Ren opened their laptop again and continued looking over the Airdramon file.

"How can we possibly defeat that thing? Tsukaimon only just began to affect it!" Mikio cried out.

"If we're lucky, then maybe one of them will evolve and help us out," Ren replied. "I know that it's a bit flaky to say something of that nature, but I really don't see any other way. Besides that, the only way we'd be able to overwhelm it would be with the power of at least five or six other Rookie level Digimon."

"That sounds rough..." Mikio murmured. Even if Ren was making their situation sound hopeless, Mikio could still feel hope inside of him. There had to be some way that they'd be getting out of this.

Airdramon was rising out of the water now. Ren was typing away on their laptop still, trying desperately to find some sort of weakness Airdramon had. Mikio watched Tsukaimon face off with Airdramon, her wings pumping to keep her in the air. Airdramon was still covered in water, which meant that any fire likely wouldn't have a lasting impact on Airdramon's state.

"Purple Fog!" Tsukaimon exclaimed. A cloud of fog appeared around Airdramon to blur its vision long enough for an upcoming attack to be planned. She turned to her partner to see him staring at his Digivice.

Mikio wasn't quite sure what possessed him to pull out his Digivice. He stared at it. Gold data was swarming along its screen, buzzing madly for some reason or another that he wasn't sure of. A few quick beeps came out of the speaker before a small patch of gold data appeared before him. Mikio's eyes went wide with awe as he reached out and grabbed it, which resulted in the Digivice swallowing the data quickly.

"Data Scan complete," came an electronic voice from the Digivice's speaker.

Mikio stared as the Digivice lit up. He held it out before him. Ren watched in shock, having been staring for quite a while, though Mikio hadn't noticed due to their sudden infatuation with the Digivice's illumination. He continued to gaze at the Digivice in confusion and excitement until he noticed that a second bright light was coming from overhead. It wasn't the sun, which caught Mikio's eye.

As it turned out, it was none other than Tsukaimon. Her body was glowing as she began to change shape before Mikio's own eyes...

 _"Tsukaimon Digivolve to... Witchmon!"_

When the light finally cleared, Tsukaimon was flying in the air, though she looked incredibly different now compared to how she did a mere few moments ago. She now wore red and took the shape of a human. Her hair was blonde, and she had a playful smirk on her lips. She was riding atop a broom in front of Airdramon, a mischievous look in her eyes as she stared down Airdramon. This must have been Witchmon, Mikio realized. That would only make sense. He didn't understand much about the Digivolution process, but from what he was aware of, that was how things worked.

"So you think that you can play with me, do you?" Witchmon asked of Airdramon, giggling to herself. She jumped up so that she was standing on top of her broom. "Baluluna Gale!"

A large column of wind shot through the air when Witchmon gestured her left hand forwards. Airdramon was once again knocked backwards, though it didn't stumble into the ocean this time around. It looked rather disoriented to Mikio, as if it was about to burst into data as soon as it got the chance to do so.

"Spinning Needle!" Airdramon was able to conjure an attack despite its look of dizziness. However, Witchmon had the advantage of being much smaller than Airdramon, so she was easily able to jump out of the way. She giggled and winked at the dragon, taking off her hat in something of a teasing gesture. Airdramon whirled around, trying to hit her with its tail, but Witchmon was too fast for that. She flipped over backwards so her hands were grasping her broom in a handstand. She stuck her tongue out playfully at Airdramon before returning to her sitting position on the broom once again. She barely dodged the swipe of Airdramon's tail, but man, she sure did look stylish doing it.

"I believe that it's time for the end to come for you, Airdramon," Witchmon taunted. She flew so that she was standing over the top of the water stretching out as far as the eye could see, still balancing lightly on her broom. "Aquary Pressure!"

The water from below began to fly upwards to Witchmon's hands. She held them out before her, her arms straight. The water channeled itself around her fingertips before flying towards Airdramon. The water was so immense in power that it created a hole through the chest of Airdramon. The dragon didn't even have a chance to cry out before its data had dissipated and had begun flying upwards into the sky, presumably towards the Digital World.

Mikio watched in awe as Witchmon began flying back towards him. She began to glow and shrink back into Tsukaimon. She was back to her regular form by the time she had reached Mikio, so she settled lightly into his arms. "Did I do okay?" she asked, looking up at Mikio with wide eyes.

"You did great!" cried Mikio. "Wow, I didn't expect something like that to happen! You were amazing! I've never seen anything like that!"

"I have to admit, it was rather impressive, Tsukaimon," Ren said with a small smile on their face. "I guess we'll have to add you to the list of Digimon that have reached the Champion level. That makes six."

"Six already? Wow... Things have just barely gotten started and already six Digimon have done that?" Mikio asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah. Salamon, Veemon, Armadillomon, Hawkmon, Lopmon, and as of a few minutes ago, Tsukaimon, have all reached the Champion level of power. I suppose this means that we're following in the footsteps of our parents after all," Ren remarked.

"I guess this means that we're going to be fighting a lot more in the future... I mean, if that many Digimon are attacking Earth, that means that there are probably more where they came from," Mikio sighed. "I was hoping to enjoy a quiet existence alongside Tsukaimon, but I guess that just isn't going to happen."

"Can you really go back to living a relaxing life after seeing what I can do when it comes to combat, though?" Tsukaimon asked.

"I suppose not," Mikio said. "I really am impressed with how you did out there. I never would have expected a sweet little Digimon like you to be capable of something like that..."

"I'm a bit tougher than I look," Tsukaimon smiled.

"We should probably get back to our homes. I bet that our parents are going to be wondering where we are. We'll have to explain the Digimon attack to them," Ren pointed out.

"Your parents aren't going to be home for another couple of hours, but Meicoomon will wonder what happened to you," Tsukaimon told Mikio. "It might be best to get back there before she panics and calls your mother. You know how much she worries if she doesn't know where you are."

"Yeah," Mikio agreed with a nod. "I'll see you later, Ren. Thanks for all your help today."

"It was no problem," Ren smiled. Tentomon perched himself on their shoulder as the computer-loving child walked away, leaving Mikio and Tsukaimon to go their way back to their apartment in the opposite direction.

* * *

"That didn't go too well."

Hinoka was standing next to the man in black as they continued to watch on the television screen. They had been staring at it ever since the battle between Tsukaimon, Tentomon, and Airdramon had started, daring not to look away for too long in case something happened. The man in black had his arms crossed over his chest. His fingers tightened around his arm as he glared at the screen.

"I can see that, Hinoka," the man in black snarled. "However, this changes nothing. They are still nothing compared to you and the others. They will be able to do nothing when you take your revenge in the coming days. This is just to make things more interesting. If they reach the next level now, they won't be saved by some sort of miracle when they encounter us. On top of that, it means that we'll be able to play with them a bit more before they reach the end of the line."

"I know," Hinoka replied. She watched as the man in black turned off the screen. "That makes six, doesn't it? There are still nine others that we can play around with before they reach their demises. This doesn't stop the inevitable. It only holds it off by a matter of minutes."

"Exactly," the man in black agreed. "We shouldn't let it bother us. The end is nigh whether they know it or not. The DigiDestined have taken away too much from us whether they know it or not. I believe that it's time that they understand how much trouble they cause. While they claim to be saving the world, their actions have consequences just like all other people's do. Not even the most noble of people can stop all suffering no matter how they try. It is that suffering caused by their hands that leads our organization forwards to bringing the end upon them so that no others will have to see pain because of them. Revenge will be exacted upon them soon. It's just a matter of time."

"And time is about to run out," Hinoka smirked. "I hope you're ready, DigiDestined. Their pained expressions are going to be so sweet... I can only imagine how this will hurt them... I can't wait to see it for myself."

* * *

 _ **Okay. Explanation really quick:**_

 ** _Tsukaimon is here since we don't know Meicoomon's canon Rookie level form. I ended up randomly picking Tsukaimon to fill that spot._**

 ** _\- DIGIMON TRI. OUR FUTURE SPOILERS AHEAD YOU'VE BEEN WARNED -_**

 ** _Also Meicoomon isn't dead in this. I'll explain that at a later date in another chapter. You'll just have to wait a little bit longer for then, I'm afraid._**

 ** _\- SPOILERS OVER -_**

 ** _In other news I finally updated this book. Yay. It took two hours of constant typing to get it done but I did it. I hope you guys enjoyed it because now I am experiencing immense back pain. Rip._**

 ** _Also next week is Demon of Desire. Sweet._**

 ** _With that, I'm off. I hope you enjoyed!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	10. 10) Hydro Wave

_The blonde man couldn't help but smile to himself as he stared down at the young child in his arms. Tears were forming in his eyes as he rocked the baby gently. The longer he looked at her, the happier he got. Years ago, he never would have expected this. He and his high school sweetheart had gotten married, and now, had a child._

 _The baby didn't have a name quite yet, but that was alright with him. He was too excited. She had the same hair color as her mother, a honey blonde color that was darker than his. There wasn't much of it, but the few strands on her head made the color clear. As for her eyes, they were bright blue. This was the blonde man showing in her. She was asleep at the moment, so her sapphire orbs were hidden, but he didn't mind. The fact that she was in his arms was enough._

 _"You sure do look happy."_

 _The blonde man looked up to see the woman walking towards him. She had a small smile on her face as she looked down at the baby girl. "She looks lovely. I can tell that she's your daughter. It's the eyes that really give it away," she told him. The woman gently stroked the face of the child with one finger. The baby didn't wake up, but she seemed to relax ever so slightly at the touch._

 _"I already love her," the man smiled, giddy with excitement._

 _"Do you have a name yet? I can't just call her your daughter forever," the woman said._

 _"No, not yet. I'm planning on talking to Isara once she wakes up. She's still tired since she just finished giving birth an hour ago. Maybe she'll have some ideas," the man replied._

 _The woman couldn't hide her frown. "Isara... Isara isn't the best person, you know. I'm worried about the two of you. Well... I'm worried about what she does to you."_

 _"What she does to me?" the man echoed, shock written on his face. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."_

 _"The meeting was last week where we all met up. You tried to hide it, but I saw the bruise on the side of your face. I know that you told me it was from running into a dresser, but... I don't believe you. Are you sure that you're really okay?" the woman asked. "Please talk to me. All our lives, we were best friends, but ever since you two got married last year, you've changed. You're so closed off these days... Nobody can get anything out of you. Please. I'm worried about you."_

 _"Everything is alright. I mean it," the man insisted. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm feeling fine now."_

 _"Now? But what about in the future? And were you okay before? Please, I need you to talk to me. I can't take you hiding things from us anymore. I just want to keep you safe. I'm begging you," the woman pleaded._

 _"I-I should go... Isara is going to need me..." the man said, turning over his shoulder to look at the hospital room his wife was staying in. "I'll see you later."_

 _The man disappeared from view, leaving the woman standing alone. She stared down at the ground, tears brimming over from her eyes. She rubbed at them with the back of her hand and headed for the door. She needed to go see the only other person she could talk to about this. Her brother would have something to say for sure._

* * *

Everleigh was feeling rather relaxed when she first woke up. A week had passed since the assault involving Mikio where Tsukaimon reached the Champion level. Things were almost peaceful these days with the lack of Digimon attacks. Everleigh was fine with this. She hated violence, so she wanted it all to stop. While she doubted it was going to happen, she still enjoyed the quiet while it lasted.

Everleigh clambered out of bed and reached for her hairbrush. She began to stroke it through her waves of hair to convince the tangles to relax. She loved having long hair, but at the same time, it was a bit of a pain to go through every morning. She was fine with it, however, as it made her look more like her adoptive mother. She had always loved the long hair that Mimi sported, so she was glad to imitate it in her own way.

Gomamon was still asleep when Everleigh was finished with getting ready for the day. Since it was Sunday, it was a day that Everleigh could spend how she pleased. School was tomorrow, but she wasn't focused on Monday quite yet. Gomamon was always telling her to live in the present, so she was taking his advice for the time being. She wasn't sure how long her internal peace would last due to her terrible anxiety, but she was going to enjoy it the best she could.

"Hey!"

Everleigh let out a shriek when she heard a voice from behind her. She turned to see Gomamon had awakened. Everleigh was breathing heavily when she spoke. "I-I thought you were asleep..." the girl stuttered, holding her chest. She had grown incredibly pale due to the fright.

"I just woke up. How long have you been awake?" asked Gomamon, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"J-Just a few m-minutes... I-It's our day off, so we should do what we want. Is there anything you want to do?" Everleigh asked of her partner.

"Not really. What about you?" Gomamon replied.

"There's a store that has a book I've been wanting to get... The bookstore is a bit far away, so we'll have to take a train," Everleigh said.

"I guess that's what we're doing then!" Gomamon chirped.

"Are you sure you really want to do that? I mean, today is our day off. Is there something else you'd rather do instead? We don't get this sort of freedom often," Everleigh frowned.

"Nah! You want to go to the bookstore, so we can do that! I just want you happy! Plus, my day will be made if you can get me some rice balls while we're out. I don't get to eat them very much," Gomamon said.

"Well, I suppose we could drop into the bookstore's café after we pick up the book... It's nice and convenient, plus you really like their treats," Everleigh noted. She nodded afterwards. "Okay. It's a plan. Let's get going now so we can be back before lunchtime. I know that Dad will panic if I'm not back on time... You know how he is. He's always been a bit jumpy, especially when it comes to me."

"Yeah. The other Gomamon is always saying how he's freaking out when something even slightly goes wrong. I guess that's just how he is," Gomamon shrugged.

Everleigh crouched down and picked up the messenger bag of hers that was sitting on the floor, propped up against one of the bottom legs of the bed. "I've emptied this out since you were complaining about not having enough space. Just so long as you can fit in there with my wallet and phone, we should be alright. Is that okay with you?" Everleigh asked.

"Just so long as you don't have that big math textbook of yours in here, I'll be fine," Gomamon replied. He let himself be picked up by Everleigh, who set him in the bag. Gomamon moved around for a moment or two before finally settling into a comfortable position. "Okay. I'm good."

Everleigh crossed the room to her desk and picked up her small coin purse. She set it in the bag next to Gomamon before picking up her phone and unplugging it. She put it into the bag next as she opened the door to her room and left, Gomamon staring out of her bag all the while.

* * *

Finally, after years of waiting, the day had come.

Hinoka was in the neighborhood that the man in black had pointed her to when the subject of her former husband was brought up. She had a small address written on a slip of paper, which was resting between her index finger and thumb. She looked down at it and glanced up, searching for some sort of indicator that she was going in the right direction.

Her former husband's newer home was near the house they had lived in before all this, but Hinoka had never been to this area before. She had quite a bit of looking around to do if she wanted to find the right place, but she didn't care. At long last, revenge was within her reach.

She didn't know what she would say to him once she found his house. It was a possibility that someone else would answer the door. Maybe it would be their daughter, who was now a teenager and had aged many years since being ripped from Hinoka's side. Maybe it would be his new wife, the one that had meddled so much in Hinoka and her husband's relationship when they were still together. Maybe it would be her husband himself, who would turn pale in the blink of an eye upon seeing Hinoka return.

She knew exactly what she would say to him if he was the one to answer the door. She would say that it had been a long time. She would try to be friendly before asking the one question that she needed an answer to desperately. Where was her daughter? It was time for Hinoka to take back what was rightfully hers, a child that had been torn from her arms before they could even be together for six months. If that meant having to barge past her husband to take her back kicking and screaming, she would do it, because no cowardly husband like hers deserved to have a daughter with the blood of Hinoka.

* * *

It was about an hour before Everleigh was stepping off the train and onto the platform. The bookstore was only a few minutes away, so it wouldn't be much longer until she would have her book and Gomamon would have his rice balls.

Everleigh had heard about the book before and all the good reviews it had gotten. It was a courtroom drama regarding a small law agency in California and the cases its lawyers solved as they tried to unravel a larger mystery. The book had originally been written in America and was only recently translated to Japanese. Everleigh had liked the author for many years, specifically their work on a medieval series regarding a continental war between the nations of Akaria and Thotia. It had been one of Everleigh's favorite series for quite some time, so she figured it would be a good idea to look into the other works of the author since she needed something to read.

The bookstore was a good place to read as well. It had a small room with couches and bean bag chairs in it on the top floor of the building. There were large windows that overlooked the sea, making it a nice and peaceful location for one to get homework done or enjoy the scenery and read a new novel. Everleigh considered staying there for a while after Gomamon had gotten his treat and she had bought her book. She deserved a little bit of a break after all the craziness that had been going down recently.

Everleigh walked up to the second floor of the building, which had three floors. The bottom one had novels and the café. The second floor had foreign stories and books for children. The third and final floor contained manga and the reading room. There were cash registers on each floor, so she could check out without going down a flight of stairs.

Everleigh quickly found her novel in the section for books written in America. It wasn't particularly expensive, which was shocking considering how thick it was. The author was known for lengthy tales, but Everleigh was still surprised with its size. She approached the cashier next to pay for her book.

After she was done, she felt something poking her leg. She looked down to see Gomamon was tapping her with his paw from inside the bag. She opened it up as she neared the elevator. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

Gomamon nodded. "I smell a Digimon around here somewhere. I don't know where, but they're nearby," he told her quietly to avoid rousing any suspicion.

"Let's go and get your rice balls first and then head up to the reading room. It'll give us a pretty good view of the area. Plus, you're going to need energy if something does go wrong," Everleigh told him as she stepped into the elevator. There was nobody else with her, so she was able to raise her voice ever so slightly.

"You don't want to fight though, am I right?" Gomamon questioned.

Everleigh sighed and nodded. "Yeah... I was hoping that the attacks had stopped... I mean, there hasn't been anything in a week. I'm hoping that the Digimon you're smelling is just from another one of us DigiDestined nearby..." she murmured.

Gomamon sniffed the air again. "There might be someone like that nearby... I smell a Patamon!" he exclaimed. "It must be Chris or her dad. But I also smell something else. There's another Digimon around here too. We'll have to be careful."

Everleigh nodded and shut her bag, folding the lid of the satchel over the opening. She walked to the café, where she purchased three rice balls, two of them for Gomamon and the last for her. After receiving her treats in a bag, she returned to the elevator and ascended to the reading room.

It was empty, that was for sure. There was only one other person in there, Everleigh noticed. It was a girl with lengthy light brown hair and a flying hamster perched peacefully atop her head, watching her read...

"Patamon!" Gomamon exclaimed. He opened the top of the bag as the orange Digimon looked up. Everleigh dashed over to where Chris and Patamon were sitting on their bean bag chair in the corner and let Gomamon out of the bag. He hopped down to the ground and waved with his large paw.

"Everleigh!" Chris gasped. "I didn't expect to see you here today. Is something wrong? You look slightly on edge..."

"G-Gomamon said he smelled a D-Digimon when we were picking u-up a book..." Everleigh explained, her stutter returning now that she was around people besides just Gomamon. It was a habit of hers since she was a bit tense and anxious around other people besides her partner and family members.

"I see... Maybe that Digimon is around here somewhere. I haven't seen anything suspicious in the bookstore yet, but there might be something outside," Chris suggested. "We should probably go look around."

"We came up here thinking we'd have a good view of the area since we're high up and surrounded by windows," Gomamon explained. "If anything happens, we'll be able to see it immediately. That means that we can go out there and beat somebody up for it."

"If this Digimon is powerful, maybe one of our partners will go to the next level. That's been happening a lot lately. About a third of our partners have reached the next level so far," Chris said.

"M-Maybe..." Everleigh whispered. She wasn't too keen on the whole fighting Digimon deal. After all, she had lived a regular life up until a few years ago, back when she was taken in by Joe and Mimi. She and Gomamon had met straight away, which thrust her into a destiny that hadn't originally been hers. It was unsettling to her, knowing that she had just ended up in this situation by chance without any experience. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do, but she could learn... At the very least, that was what she was hoping for.

"I see something!" Patamon suddenly cried out. He was flying in between Chris and Everleigh's faces now. He was staring out at the ocean. A fiery man had appeared on the shore, sending people scattering. He was large enough to be seen from the bookstore's window even if it was about a quarter of a mile away. Men and women ran in all directions to try and escape him and his reign of terror.

Chris had her Digivice out in an instant. "Meramon. A flame Digimon," she remarked, reading from the screen of her device. "Maybe we can use the water to our advantage. He's got fire, so we can use water to get rid of him easily."

"B-But won't we need a-a Digimon with water a-attacks to do it? H-He's too big and p-powerful for us to just p-pour water on him a-and get rid of him..." Everleigh stammered, looking down at the ground nervously.

"No matter what we do, we should get going. I don't think the general population will be very happy if he gets to the city and starts attacking people," Gomamon cut in. Everleigh nodded in response and dashed to the elevator. The other three followed after her in a hurry as well.

"Wait... I-I don't have my D-Digivice!" Everleigh cried out, her eyes widening as the elevator began its descent.

"Don't worry. It's in your bag. You forgot to take it out when you emptied it," Gomamon told her. He watched as she put her book into her satchel and fished out her Digivice, which made Everleigh sigh in relief.

"Here's to hoping they'll come in handy. My Digivice says that Meramon is a Champion, so I doubt that two Rookies will be able to defeat him. Plus, he looks angry," Chris said next, still looking down at the small device.

Once the elevator had reached the bottom floor, the doors opened slowly. Everleigh and Chris ran out, Patamon in his partner's arms and Gomamon in Everleigh's bag. Everleigh didn't have a response for what Chris had said regarding the inevitable impending evolution. She hated that they had to fight at all. She didn't want Gomamon to potentially get hurt in the fight. If he reached the Champion level, then he'd have to fight Meramon, which would only put him at risk. Couldn't somebody else handle the violent part of being a DigiDestined?

Before Everleigh knew it, she and Chris had arrived at the beach. It wasn't long before they spotted Meramon. Everleigh was still gripping her Digivice tightly when Meramon turned to face them. Patamon took flight as Gomamon hopped from Everleigh's bag. She wanted nothing more than to take him and squeeze him tight, to protect him from Meramon's fiery wrath, but she knew that wasn't going to be happening so long as the flame Digimon was able to fight.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon shouted as he inhaled a large amount of air before shooting it out in a puff at Meramon.

Meramon didn't have anything to say in response to this. He just groaned and swatted the air away, glaring at the flying hamster. He reached out and grabbed Patamon with one hand. He cried out in pain. Everleigh saw a small amount of smoke fly up from Patamon's back. His fur was being burned because of the fire that made up Meramon's skin.

"Patamon!" Chris yelled. Her grip on her Digivice tightened as she went paler.

Everleigh stared down at her Digivice. She had to do something about this. Nobody could touch Meramon. Gomamon's primary attack involved hurling fish at the target, but that would only kill the fish on contact and would do nothing to Meramon. Patamon couldn't do anything while he was trapped as he was right then. That meant that it was up to Gomamon potentially reaching the next level of power.

Gomamon was approaching Meramon while Everleigh looked at her device for an answer. "Hey there, big guy," he said, looking up at Meramon. Everleigh let out a gasp. He was going to try and either distract Meramon to free Patamon or fight Meramon himself. He was surely going to get hurt.

Meramon responded with a swift kick to Gomamon's chest. The small Digimon was sent flying through the air and into the water nearby. Everleigh screamed in surprise and started to run to him, praying and hoping with all she had that he was okay.

Everleigh found him a few feet into the water. She ignored the waves that were splashing up to her knees and picked him up. "Gomamon... It's going to be okay!" she exclaimed, hugging him tighter.

And suddenly, she understood.

In order to keep Gomamon from getting hurt further, she had to let him reach the Champion level and defeat Meramon. If she didn't, he'd end up getting more hurt than he would have if she had let him Digivolve.

A small flash of light appeared in front of her. It was a small patch of gray data. It sort of reminded her of what she had seen the day Salamon had become Mikemon... This had to be to help Gomamon Digivolve!

She held up her Digivice with one hand and set Gomamon down with the other. The data was absorbed into the device before an electronic voice spoke. "Data Scan complete."

Gomamon began to glow from his place inside the water below. Everleigh watched in awe. Even Meramon turned to look, dropping Patamon into the sand in the process. Chris ran towards Patamon and picked him up. Meramon whirled to face her and looked ready to punch her, but he backed off and instead ran towards where Gomamon was glowing in the water.

 _"Gomamon, Digivolve to... Tylomon!"_

Gomamon, now in the form of Tylomon, burst through the surface of the waves not long after. He was surrounded by a sphere of water as he floated up into the air. Everleigh's eyes went wide as she watched him. He looked amazing!

Meramon wasn't having any of this. "Fireball!" he shouted. Fire crackled on his arms as he thrust them forwards. Flames burst forth and danced through the air to hit the sphere of water that Tylomon was inside.

However, his attacks never hit Tylomon himself. Instead, the flames died away the second they hit the watery orb. Steam rose up into the air before disappearing entirely. Everleigh watched, clutching her Digivice to her chest as Tylomon flew deeper into the water, prompting Meramon to follow after him.

Meramon chased Tylomon deeper into the water. Everleigh dashed away when Meramon grew close, going over to where Chris and Patamon were sitting on the beach to watch from a safer vantage point.

Tylomon did a small flip from his place in the water. He looked sort of like a blue torpedo to Everleigh. There was no way that Everleigh could look at him and not think that he was at least a little bit cool. She couldn't believe that her goofy little Gomamon was really the same Digimon as this epic newcomer, Tylomon, as he seemed to be called.

Everleigh watched as Meramon continued to go deeper into the water. She got the impression that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, or even in the whole world for that matter. He was a flame Digimon that was going further into an ocean. If he kept going, he was going to end up being more and more damaged until he turned into data. Well, that was if Tylomon didn't burst out an attack and eliminate him before the water could get rid of him. It depended on what Tylomon decided to do.

"Looks like you're not the brightest bulb out there, eh?" Tylomon asked. He looked at Meramon as the fiery Digimon realized that he was standing knee deep in water. Steam delicately floated upwards around him as Meramon's eyes went wide in fear and shock that he had willingly done something so stupid.

"Well, I'm going to finish you off before you have the chance to hurt anyone else. Hydro Wave!" Tylomon shouted. Water burst forth in a geyser coming from his sphere of water. It slammed right into Meramon's chest. He fell backwards into the water before exploding into a puff of data and disappearing.

Tylomon approached Everleigh before returning back to normal. Gomamon flopped down into Everleigh's arms and sighed dramatically. "I'm tired after all that. Do you think maybe we could get some more rice balls before heading back home? I could use a little pick-me-up," Gomamon said, looking up into Everleigh's eyes. His gaze was pleading with her.

"Well, you d-did pretty well a minute a-ago... I guess it wouldn't h-hurt!" Everleigh exclaimed, smiling at him. She pulled him in close for a hug.

"I should probably go home... I'm sure my parents have something to help Patamon out with this patch of burned skin on his back... Poor thing," Chris whispered. Patamon had fallen asleep in her arms, likely due to the pain of the burn. She stroked her partner gently and looked down on him lovingly.

"M-My father probably has something t-to help... You know, s-since he's a doctor and a-all..." Everleigh stammered.

"I might just take you up on that offer. He'll probably have something a bit better. Thank you, Everleigh," Chris said.

Everleigh nodded as Chris's phone emitted a beeping sound to indicate that she had gotten a text. The girl opened her purse and fished out her phone before turning it on.

Everleigh could see by looking over her shoulder that it was a text from her father. Its words sent a shiver of fear up and down her spine.

 _'DON'T COME HOME'_

* * *

Hinoka had finally found the right house after having been searching for so long. She stood in front of it, a smirk on her face. This all didn't even seem real. After years upon years of being lonely since her no good former husband had taken her daughter and her marriage when he left her in the night, she was finally at the time of her revenge. It felt so sweet. Many had told her during her childhood that revenge was something one shouldn't get involved in. Hinoka couldn't see what was so bad about it. She felt great, magical even. How could someone not want to feel this sort of happiness?

Hinoka's fingers gently brushed upon the surface of the door as she knocked. There wasn't any sort of hole on the door for the people inside to see who it was. Even if there had been one, it wouldn't have mattered. They still would have known that she was there and wasn't planning on giving up until she had gotten what she wanted.

It wasn't long before the door opened to reveal a woman. Kari Kamiya. Well, these days it was Kari Takaishi. She was the woman who had taken her husband from her after he had run away and left her alone. Hinoka had spoken with her many times over her relationship with her husband, most of the conversations ending in sour looks from Hinoka.

"What... What are you doing here?!" Kari exclaimed in shock, her face having gone pale.

"I'm here to claim what is rightfully mine," Hinoka told her. "I'm here for my daughter, Chisane Takaishi. Where is she?"

"TK!" Kari cried in fear. She was gripping the door handle and trembling by this point. Hinoka couldn't help but feel powerful. How could she not? After all those years of feeling spiteful and full of anger and a need for revenge, seeing one of the people who had hurt her so much shake in terror was all too satisfying for her. She couldn't help but feel a bit of euphoria over it.

Hinoka's former husband appeared not long after. As soon as his eyes met Hinoka's, he went pale. "I... Isara..." he whispered in fear.

"It's nice to see you're not dead yet, but I really wish you were," Hinoka said to him in anger. She let a sadistic smile appear on her lips as a question formed. "I will ask one more time. Where is my daughter?"

TK had the door shut in the blink of an eye. He locked it as quickly as he could before taking Kari's hand and dashing to the living room. He was visibly shaking when he pulled out his phone and began to text Chris. She was still out looking for a book at the bookstore. He couldn't let her come home so long as Isara Hinoka was still around. He didn't even want to know what was going to happen if Isara got her hands on her.

"What... What are we going to do?" Kari asked, sitting down next to him on the couch.

"I... I have no idea," TK whispered.

* * *

 ** _I finally did the update thing! Yes!_**

 ** _Also, we have a bit of self-promo with the book Everleigh went to buy. That's about Quiet after the Hurricane because Quiet after the Hurricane. Why not? Speaking of, an update for that is coming later on today. Nice._**

 ** _Oh yeah. The obvious part. Plot twist! Everybody likes those. I hope that it wasn't too obvious or anything._**

 ** _I don't have much else to say here. I think I'm going to go and leave any reviewers to wonder about the plot twist and stuff in the review section. I'll answer anything next chapter._**

 ** _Next week, we'll have a double QATH update! After that, we'll have Demon of Desire and QATH. As of now, QATH is a thing every week which is cool._**

 ** _I'm off now. I hope you enjoyed!_**

 ** _-Digital_**


	11. 11) Isara Hinoka

**_Hey, guys! This chapter has a bit of graphic content in it, so a trigger warning for domestic violence and gore is in effect for the duration of this chapter! Keep yourselves safe, guys! Don't read on if you think you might end up triggered by it! I'd rather you keep yourselves healthy than force yourselves through it._**

 ** _This has been a PSA. Thank you. Now, on to the chapter!_**

* * *

To put it simply, Chris was feeling a tad bit awkward when she walked after Everleigh into the latter's house.

After getting the text from her father, Everleigh had offered to let her come home with her until things had smoothed over. She didn't know exactly what else to do. Normally, TK was a lot more casual when texting her. Something was obviously wrong, though nothing could be done about it until they got more information on the matter. Both girls were hoping to get something from TK or Kari, anything, but by the time that they had gotten back from the bookstore, there were no new text notifications to show that nothing had come through. Gomamon was uncharacteristically quiet, not even bothering to crack a joke on what was happening.

Haru was stretched out on the couch when they arrived, their Palmon eating an apple beside them. Upon noticing Everleigh and Chris, they looked up. "Hey," they said simply. "I didn't expect to see you bring somebody else home with you, Everleigh. Are you two going to read some books together or something?"

"Not exactly," Chris murmured. "I got a text from my father telling me not to come home, so Everleigh offered to let me come here. I hope it doesn't interfere with any plans you may have had... I could probably go and see Mila if need be."

"It's fine," Haru assured her. They swung their legs down and got to their feet. "I can go and talk to Mom about it. She's home from work today even if Dad has other things to do. I'm sure they'll be fine with it."

Chris nodded slowly, a frown clear on her face. "Alright... Thank you for this. I promise that I'll get out of your hair as soon as I can. I don't exactly know what's going on at my house right now, nor do I have any easy way to find out, so this is much appreciated. If I hear anything, you two will be the first to hear about it."

Everleigh sat down on the couch and gestured for Chris to follow suit. Gomamon was in the former's arms, looking around the room with a frown. "You have to wonder about it, you know?" he asked. "I've never heard your dad so serious, or read in this case. Something must really be bugging him."

"You're probably right. I just wish I knew what it was. He's seen a lot in his time from what I can tell, so I try not to dive too deep into all that stuff, but it does bug me from time to time. He's only ever open with Mom about it. I don't want to bother him or bring up painful memories, so I try to steer clear, but it seems like it's all coming back to bite him now." A sigh left Chris's lips. "I should be clear to head back tonight, so I can learn more about it then, but until then, all I can really do is speculate. It's just a shame that will probably leave me even more freaked out than I have any right to be."

"D-Don't worry. I-I'm sure everything will be fine," Everleigh said, reaching out a hand to place on her shoulder. "Stay as long as y-you need to, a-alright?"

"Got it," Chris smiled, though it didn't take a genius to see that she was forcing it to keep Everleigh from worrying. The girls and their Digimon both fell silent in the minutes that followed, unsure of what else to say. The quiet brought with it anxieties and worries about what was happening, but nobody spoke up about it, as if they were afraid of what the truth might be behind the suddenly solemn incident.

* * *

"You know, Takeru," Hinoka shouted from her place outside the house, "I don't think that you can just hide in there forever. I can ask you as many times as I need to before I get an answer. I want to know where my daughter is. It's been fifteen years since I last saw her. Can't you at least allow a mother one final chance to see her child? I'm not going to leave until I get what I want. You know full well how stubborn I can be, especially after being with me for so long."

TK and Kari were both silent. Sato wasn't home then either, having decided to spend the day with Saki and Mila at the latter's house. They were thankful that their son was nowhere to be found, as they weren't entirely sure what they'd be able to tell him if he asked about what was going on. It had been an unspoken pact between them to keep quiet about the incidents surrounding Isara Hinoka for as long as they possibly could, but it seemed that just wasn't meant to be.

"I could easily stand out here all day. I have nothing better to be doing. After searching and waiting for so long, I can finally see my daughter again. You brought this on yourselves. You committed a grave sin against me fifteen years ago. I'm just here to settle the score and do what I should have done ages ago. You took away my family. I'm just here to take it back," Hinoka said, leaning up against the wall beside the front door. "What do you say to that?"

Patamon was solemn from his place on the rocking chair in the living room. "Maybe we should call for help," he whispered to TK. "I'm sure Tai or Matt would come if you guys said that you needed them. They know about how she is. After all, that night..."

TK's eyes shut, cutting off Patamon from speaking further. He shook his head slowly. "No... I can't do that. I don't want to pull them into this. It's my problem. I'll take care of it. Isara has to leave soon," he said softly, though it was clear that was more convincing himself than he was persuading Kari, Patamon, or Gatomon.

Kari shook her head. "I'm calling Tai. He'll know what to do. Even if you don't want to get him involved, he needs to hear. After all, the night everything went wrong, he was there. He'll gladly do what he can for us," she told him. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed her brother's name. TK didn't even bother trying to argue with her. When Kari got stubborn this way, it was best to just go along with what she wanted to do. On top of that, he didn't have the energy to form a suitable counterargument. After all this time, all these years thinking that he would be alright, his past had come back to bite him in the ass. TK had been sure that Isara had been left behind years ago, but it appeared that fate had other designs for him and the woman he had once loved.

Even if it had been ages since he had last seen her, he could still remember it crystal clear. In some of his worst dreams, he remembered what went down between the two of them that made him leave her. As Kari took a step back to pace while on the phone with Tai, TK stared down at the ground, thoughts drifting back to that night. He tried to push it away, but he knew that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, so he resigned himself to reliving it.

* * *

 _TK wished that he had listened._

 _All those times that Kari had come over to tell him that she was worried, he had told her it was fine. When she started noticing the bruises that littered his arms when they spoke, he shrugged it off and claimed it was an accident. Kari seemed to know before he was ready to admit it. TK had been in denial for so damn long, and now, the truth was practically on top of him. Isara was growing more violent, especially now that she had given birth to their daughter. She seemed to be angry over the littlest things, such as TK coming home a little bit late or even just speaking with Kari. Even the baby crying seemed to set her off on an angry tangent. Nothing he said could get her to calm down when she got this way. All he could do was try to wait it out and hope that she didn't end up even angrier._

 _That night, TK had been a few minutes late from work. He had been caught up in traffic after a car accident blocked off the highway's right two lanes. He lightly shut the door behind him as he walked into their apartment. It was rather quiet, so he would have to be careful if he didn't want to get the attention of-_

 _"You're late."_

 _TK jumped at hearing Isara's voice. She was standing in front of him with her arms crossed. "Well?" she asked impatiently. "What's your reason this time? Were you out talking to your little friend? I've told you countless times that I don't want you associating with Kari! All she wants to do is get between us in our relationship! She wants to take you away from me! How many more times do I need to spell it out for you?! She's a bad influence on you, Takeru!"_

 _"I-I just got stuck in traffic," TK said, holding up his hands defensively. "I really didn't mean to be late. I apologize, Isara. I wasn't talking to Kari at all."_

 _He should have seen this ages ago. Isara did nothing but complain about how Kari wanted to marry TK despite the fact that he was a taken man. Isara insisted that she was going to break them apart and that she was nothing short of a demon. Even shorter conversations made Isara angry. TK had gone along with it for so long, telling himself that it was just Isara's territorial and protective nature, but he was so sick of it. The white-hot rage in his core had been hidden for so long, but he was tired of all this. However, if he tried to bring it up (which he had done three months before, just before the birth of their daughter), Isara would just make it out to be his fault no matter how hard he attempted to convince her it wasn't him in the wrong. Isara could be a bit stubborn in that sense._

 _"Good," Isara told him, though it was clear she didn't entirely believe it. From the nearby hallway, a cry could be heard. TK couldn't help but gasp. The baby was crying, so he had to go take care of it. The chances of Isara bothering to check on their daughter were slim at best, so it was up to him to make sure she was okay. Oftentimes, she just wanted to be rocked to sleep by TK after waking up. She seemed to prefer him over Isara since he was around her more often._

 _"Go take care of the damn baby," Isara moaned with a roll of her eyes. "I'll be in our room. You had better not try and call that Kari woman again. You know what happened last time that you did it, don't you?"_

 _Of course he remembered. How could he forget? He didn't think he'd ever be able to let that memory fade. He could recall in vivid detail the feeling of her palm slapping into his cheek. He'd ended up with a bloody nose from the force of the impact, though he'd done his best to keep her from seeing it. She'd call him weak and a pathetic excuse for a man if he showed that he was hurt. Back when things had gotten worse, she'd started to do that. He hated it, but he couldn't say much about it without fear of being ridiculed or something else along those lines. TK knew that his friends would stay by his side always, but a nagging fear in the back of his head insisted they'd find him weak for letting her hit him when she got mad. It was that fear that kept him quiet for so many months._

 _TK simply nodded in response. "Yes," he mumbled to himself. He dashed off to go and see what was wrong with their daughter. She didn't cry very often since she wasn't the pickiest of children or anything of the sort. He had expected her to be sound asleep at this time honestly. It was nearly eleven, but here she was, still awake. Maybe she was waiting for him to get back and rock her to sleep. Maybe she had been woken up by Isara's yelling. Both of them were plausible explanations considering that she loved her father to pieces and Isara's yelling often seemed to leave her frightened and shaken even if she didn't quite understand what her mother was saying. TK couldn't blame her. He'd be fearful as well if he was young and forced to listen to her._

 _Once he arrived in her room, the crying seemed to get louder. He leaned over the crib and waved gently. "Hi there," he said quietly before reaching in and picking her up. The sobs seemed to die down before stopping altogether. She stared up at her father in silence before shutting her eyes once more._

 _Her name was Chisane. Despite liking her father more, she looked nearly exactly like her mother. They had the same honey-blonde hair (though Isara had much more of it due to being older) and the same smile. Isara hadn't been smiling much since her daughter had been born. She seemed to be angry all the time now. Chisane's one common feature with her father was their blue eyes, though this was still a similarity to Isara since TK's wife also had sapphire irises._

 _Chisane smiled up at TK, her eyes still shut. TK couldn't help but smile in return. She was a real sweetheart, even if she didn't seem to know it yet. She wouldn't understand a word he said until she was a bit older. It would be a while before that time came, so all he could do was whisper compliments and hope that she wouldn't end up unhappy if Isara came into the room. While he hadn't mentioned it to Isara, it almost seemed that Chisane feared her mother. Isara would only grow angry if he brought it up, so he kept his mouth shut tight so as not to provoke her into another angry rage. She was awful when upset._

 _Chisane was asleep not long after TK began rocking her. He went to place her into her crib when he decided that he wasn't quite ready to go and see Isara yet. He had been through a lot that day since waking up at the crack of dawn. Even if it would only be for a few minutes, he wanted to be with his daughter for just a little bit longer. Work had been rough that day. Since TK couldn't exactly live off his writing job alone due to the low pay, he worked as an editor on the side to help other authors get their works published. It often helped with his inspiration. His clients always seemed to have things for him to do, so his days were busy, and that was putting it lightly. While he longed to be able to just write for a living, he doubted that was going to be happening anytime soon._

 _He wandered out into the living room, Chisane still in his arms. She was snoring lightly, which made him smile. TK sat down on the couch and simply looked down at his daughter. It was almost hard to believe, even after three months, that he actually had a child. He was the only DigiDestined to have a kid at that moment, which was something special for him. He hadn't expected to be the first, but now that it had happened, he couldn't be happier. Chisane was as precious as humanly possible. He loved spending time with her after a hard day at work. She always seemed to bring a smile to his face. He couldn't help but feel pride and excitement when he looked down at his lovely daughter each night before tucking her into bed._

 _In fact, everything would have been perfect if it wasn't for..._

 _"What are you doing?"_

 _Isara came out into the living room not long after. "I told you that I wanted you in the bedroom, didn't I?" she snapped angrily. "Come on. Put the kid to bed and let's go. You need to help your loving wife relax after a long day at work, don't you?" Isara asked. She placed one hand on TK's shoulder, sending a shiver running up and down his spine. "You spend more time with that baby than you do with me. That's a problem we need to resolve, wouldn't you agree?"_

 _"No, it isn't," TK found himself saying, though he immediately regretted it. "I just want to have a little bit of time with my daughter. I'll be in our room in a moment. I won't be very long. You know I never am. Just give me a few minutes. She was upset and I wanted to-"_

 _"Enough about the child already!" Isara fumed. "It's disrespectful to keep me waiting like this! I'm your wife! I'm the most important person in your life! That will never change regardless of how many children we have! I wish that you didn't even make me have a child! This is all your fault!"_

 _"You were the one who wanted a daughter!" TK exclaimed. He rose to his feet as the conversation grew more intense."I'm just trying to raise her well!"_

 _"You can't prioritize a three-month-old child over your wife! That's not how it works! You need to love me with everything you have, not just ignore me the second that the whiny baby starts to cry! Babies always cry! It's not your job to go and take care of it when things go wrong! Just let her go on and cry already! It doesn't matter! She'll shut up eventually!" Isara shouted, her voice getting louder. As if hearing her mother, Chisane woke up and began to cry. Isara let out a snort and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, go on and cry like you always do! Cry just because you don't care about your mother and like your father better!"_

 _TK instantly let his anger flow away as he focused his attention back on Chisane. She was holding her hands in fists as she flung them every which way. He rocked her back and forth, whispering a few comforting phrases in hopes that she'd relax soon enough. He couldn't be sure if she would, but he could at least hope. She seemed to calm down after a few seconds of him doing this, but she was still crying rather loudly. TK went in to give her a kiss on the forehead._

 _"Stop focusing on the damn baby!" Isara screamed. "If I knew that you were going to just focus more on her than me, I wouldn't have told you to go quiet her down! I'm the most important person in your life, Takeru! I always have been and I always will be! Nothing you say or do can ever change that!"_

 _TK gave no response. He continued to look down at Chisane, who was getting noisy again over Isara's yelling. He wanted to make it all stop so that he could comfort her and assure her the best he could that she was going to be alright, but that wasn't going to be happening so long as Isara was in the room._

 _"Stop ignoring me!" Isara shrieked next. Before TK could fully recognize what was happening, Isara had picked up a nearby vase sitting on the table next to the couch and swung it as hard as she could. It broke as soon as it slammed into TK's arm, sending shards of glass everywhere. Multiple pieces sliced into TK's arm, going through his shirt to cut his arm. He gasped out in pain. He couldn't go to dab at it so long as Chisane was still in his arms, so he needed to set her down-_

 _Chisane's screaming only increased in volume. He looked down to see a smaller piece of glass stuck in her shoulder. His eyes went wide. He had to do something about this. He was no medical professional though. He'd have to call Joe. Even if it made Isara mad, he had to at least try it now._

 _TK dashed for the door, fumbling in his pocket for his phone while holding Chisane in his other arm. Tears were streaming down her delicate face to stain his shirt. He had heard her upset before, but never in the past had she been this unhappy, likely since she hadn't been hurt like this before then._

 _"Are you seriously leaving me?! All I want is to spend time with you! You know that and you're leaving me just to go and do other things! You owe this much to your wife, Takeru!" Isara yelled next. "I had to do that to show that I'm serious! You can't go spouting a bunch of crap without expecting a punishment!"_

 _"I'm done with this, Isara," TK whispered. "I'm done with all of this. For so long, I've made excuses and let it slide because I just thought you got this way sometimes. Every single blow you dealt had a reason behind it, according to you. I've stood by long enough and let you do this for too long. Now that you've hurt our daughter, a baby, for crying out loud... I'm leaving. I can't do this anymore. You can find somebody else. Maybe you'll treat them better."_

 _"You'll be back soon! You always are! No matter how many times you say that you're just going to go, you always come back since you can't be without me! Everyone will just find you awful! What sort of man would leave his wife to suffer this way?! You'll be back, and when you are, I'll show you that I have no tolerance for pathetic and spineless men like you!" Isara shouted. She stormed into their bedroom, slamming the door behind her._

 _TK opened the front door, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. He didn't want to call Joe yet. He just had to get out of here. Tai and Sora's house was only a few blocks away. They were set to be married in a few months, so they were living together as they had been for the past two years. If they were still up at this hour of the night, they had to be able to help him. It was pouring down rain outside, but he didn't really care. He just had to get out of there._

* * *

 _By the time that TK had arrived at Tai and Sora's home, he was drenched in rain and in tears. The full reality of what had happened was hitting him head on. He had finally snapped at Isara and left her. He had done this before, if in smaller ways. The last time had been before Chisane had been born. Since her birth, he told himself he wouldn't do that to keep her from getting hurt. If he had to, he was going to just have to stomach Isara for her sake. All for her sake._

 _But now that he had left Isara, now that he was free... He had taken her with him to get out of that little hellhole. He was glad, but at the same time, fear was pulling at his stomach. Everything he had was with Isara now. All his money, all his possessions, everything. It was still with her. He didn't want to go back and get the stuff, but he knew he would have to do that at some point. He couldn't just start over with the small amount of cash he had on him from work._

 _Chisane's sobs had died down since they had left the house. At first, she had been crying loudly due to the glass in her arm. Since then, she had fallen asleep, but TK could still hear her pained whines even as she rested. That was all the reason he needed to leave. TK had told himself countless times before that everything would be fine so long as Chisane wasn't hurt, but after the events that had just transpired, he couldn't bring himself to go back ever._

 _TK lifted one finger to press the doorbell beside the entrance to Tai and Sora's house. He doubted that either one of them was awake. If they weren't, he'd just have to go and see Matt. It would be a bit of a walk, but he couldn't just sleep out in the heavy rain like this. He was likely to develop hypothermia after much longer, and that wasn't even thinking about Chisane, who had a weak immune system due to her young age. TK internally prayed that the DigiDestined of Courage or his partner of Love would be up still. His foot tapped against the welcome mat in his impatience as he rocked Chisane a little bit more._

 _To his surprise, Sora appeared in the doorway about thirty seconds later. TK went to breathe a sigh of relief, but instead, a sob left his lips. All of this was exhausting to him. He was cold and exhausted. It was nearly midnight. Chisane's tiny fists were holding tight to his shirt. He could tell she was just as cold as he was. He longed to be able to comfort her, but he didn't have anything to warm her with. TK was almost afraid to meet Sora's eyes in this state._

 _Luckily, she didn't seem to need it. With a gasp of shock, she opened the door wider and gestured for him to come in. TK stood on the rug just inside the door for a moment, trying to get rid of the excess rainwater. A tear splashed onto Chisane's face. She was still asleep, which he was thankful for._

 _Sora dashed off for a moment before returning with a towel. She was wearing her nightgown. A book was sitting on the table beside the couch underneath a lamp. It seemed that she had been up reading, which explained why she was able to answer the door. She reached out her arms to take Chisane from TK, which he allowed. He briefly tried to dry himself off before insisting on taking his daughter back. He wrapped her up as tightly as possible and hugged her to his chest, being careful to not put pressure on the glass still embedded in her shoulder._

 _"What happened?" Sora asked, taking her seat back on the couch. TK followed her example when she gestured for him to do so, though he tried to take up as little space as possible to keep from getting all the cushions soaked with water. He wished he'd thought to bring a change of clothes in a suitcase with other necessities. Unfortunately, the decision had been so sudden that he hadn't been given the chance to even think about throwing that sort of thing together._

 _"Isara," TK muttered numbly. He already knew she understood. Kari had figured it out a while ago and told Tai about it. She had told him that herself. Tai had been ready to go after Isara to get her to back off, but TK had protested. Sora had heard it from her lover. She had been concerned about it, but since TK was so insistent on keeping it quiet, she hadn't known how to approach it._

 _He wished now that he'd accepted Sora, Tai, and Kari's words with open arms before everything had gone downhill._

 _"What did she do?" Sora questioned. From the way she was speaking, it was like she feared what TK would say in response._

 _TK told her what happened the best he could. He told her about the argument, Chisane's crying, Isara picking up the vase... He winced when he looked down at Chisane's arm. It was still bleeding, though it seemed to have slowed and begun to dry. He'd need to see if Joe could come and help. He was the best doctor TK knew, so he'd surely be able to help. Sora watched with a quiet concern all along. She bit her bottom lip at a few moments._

 _"I'm going to wake up Tai," she told him before rising to her feet. TK nodded and looked down._

 _Since he'd kept everybody else out of it before, things had gotten out of hand. Now that things were this way, there was no going back._

 _He wished more than ever that he'd told the truth from the start._

* * *

 ** _Wow. An on time EA update. That's new._**

 ** _This story is not dead. I swear. I'm going to be updating this a bit more often from here on out. I apologize for leaving this on hold for two months. I'll try to be better about it in the future._**

 ** _That said, this story is a bit darker than Digimon canon is. It's the elephant in the room. I'm sure this chapter told you that much. I'm going to be adding trigger warnings at the start of chapters I think need them like I did here._**

 ** _I don't have much else to say here. I'm going to go lay down and help my excruciating back pain from carrying a 10 pound backpack. Farewell._**

 ** _\- Digital_**


	12. 12) Warrior of Flame

Mila had been sitting on the couch alongside her father when his phone began to ring. The two had been highly engaged in a fighting game, both struggling to come out on top. However, the phone call made Tai pause the game to see what was going on. Mila took this as a chance to sit back on the couch and stretch out her fingers, which were cramping from all the sudden movement. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. As soon as her father sat back down, she'd be defeating him. There was no doubt about it.

"Sorry, kiddo. I have to go," Tai suddenly said, snapping Mila out of her thoughts. He had grown suddenly rather serious, which Mila wasn't exactly used to with him. She'd expect her mother to change this way, but Tai has always been the more goofy out of the two, so the sudden reverse in perspective was a little bit unsettling to Mila. She felt a shiver run up and down her spine.

"What's going on?" Mila asked, rising to her feet. "Can I come with you? It sounds like something bad happened."

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later," Tai told her. He grabbed his jacket, which had been hanging on the coatrack near the front door, and called for Agumon. His partner Digimon came running out of Mila's bedroom not long after since he had been in there with the younger Agumon of the apartment. He didn't even bother putting on his usual disguise when he saw the intense and solemn look in Tai's eyes. Instead, he dashed out of the partner shortly behind Tai in silence, which was somehow even more peculiar than Mila seeing her father in a serious mood. Agumon was normally something akin to a chatterbox, and yet here, he was being oddly quiet. She'd have to ask about it later.

"What happened?"

Mila turned upon hearing a few sets of footsteps behind her. Agumon, Saki, Gabumon, Sato, and Salamon were all walking in. They had been hanging out in Mila's bedroom while the latter settled a tie with her father over their gaming skills after leaving it unbroken for quite some time. The older Agumon had been accompanying them before his sudden departure.

"I don't really know," Mila admitted. "We were about to finish up our match when he got a random call and left. I don't even know what it was about. He didn't seem to want to say anything, but it seemed pretty bad, judging by the look on his face... Maybe we should follow him and see what it was about. That sounds fun."

"Are you really so desperate for an adventure that you're willing to go behind your father's back to learn about something he wants to keep private?" Saki asked, frowning deeply. "If you ask me, that sounds really risky. What will you do if he sees you? Plus, he's bound to get back before you since he's in a car. On top of that, we don't even know where he's going. There's a lot of holes in that plan of yours, Mil."

Before Mila could formulate a reply to defend her position, she was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing sharply. Sato gasped and dashed back to Mila's room to seize his phone from atop her bed. He powered it on and looked at the screen. There was one message on there from his mother. It was short, but he found himself worried regardless. When Sato returned to the group, he was clutching his phone tightly in his fingers. "I just got a text from my mom telling me not to come home... Do you think something bad happened?" he asked nervously, practically begging the others to assure him it would be fine with their eyes.

"Maybe that's where my father went! If he went over to Sato's house, then we know where he is! Plus, he's really close, so we could get there really easily. Don't even try to tell me that you aren't curious. This could be big. Maybe this is the call for adventure that we've been waiting for!" Mila exclaimed.

"That _you've_ been waiting for. I don't know if you knew this, Mila, but you seem to be the main person excited about all of this. The rest of us know fully well that it's dangerous and could get you seriously hurt. We don't want to take that risk. Besides, if he did go to Sato's house, wouldn't it be bad to take him somewhere he shouldn't be? This is far too risky for us to do," Saki said with crossed arms. "It makes the most sense to not go over there."

Mila sighed and shook her head. "I know that you're right, but it doesn't make me any less curious... The whole Digital World concept is so cool. I just want the same adventures as our parents. It could be great. All of it could be so exciting, and yet, we're all just sitting here and waiting for exciting things to happen. At least some of the others have gotten to the Champion level. Come on, where's my taste of adrenaline and excitement? Like Saki said, I want it most, and it still won't come." Mila flopped down on the couch and closed her eyes. "I guess that all we can really do now is wait and hope that Dad will be willing to explain it when he comes home..."

"I'm sure he will. He's really open with you," Agumon assured Mila, sitting down next to her. "In the meantime, are there any speculations as to what's going on? That might serve as a good distraction until we can learn the truth."

"I guess that could work as a conversation piece for now," Mila muttered. "Anybody have any ideas?"

* * *

With Hinoka out for the day, it was up to the man in black to decide what he wanted to do. Since the others weren't going to be striking for quite some time, they weren't present for today's meeting. The man in black had grown bored and needed something new to occupy him. He tapped his fingers against his thigh, waiting for an idea to come to him. On one hand, he wanted to see a few DigiDestined brats get what they deserved, but on the other hand, the Digimon under him were horribly incompetent, so he couldn't say for sure how well it would turn out. Either way, he needed something to do. Otherwise, he was liable to die of boredom before his plans were brought to fruition.

There were countless Digimon he had held captive that he could unleash to wreak havoc upon the world of the humans. After a little bit of thinking, his wish for bloodshed won out, so he decided to think through who he'd send. He needed someone powerful enough to do some serious harm. In that past, when he'd sent Champion Digimon, they'd end up failing before the power of the children that he so desperately wanted to eliminate. Maybe it was time to take it up a notch. The time was now to show what he was really made of and do something to those kids. Today was not going to end well for them, to say the least.

It didn't take long for the man in black to make up his decision about who he'd be sending. This was one of the more powerful Digimon that he had captured, so he hoped that he wouldn't fail him. The man in black wanted nothing more than to see this minion succeed. For too long, the DigiDestined had been doing far too much for the Digital World. It was time for the chaos that they were fighting back to consume the land and envelop it completely. Of course, this wouldn't work unless the DigiDestined were removed from the situation. They'd do everything they possibly could to win if they were still around, so the man in black had no choice but to get rid of them.

Once the order had gone through and the Digimon he had selected was on his way to the human world, the man in black let out a sigh. This time, he was sending out an Ultimate level Digimon. Most of the children still had Rookie partners, which meant that their parents would either have to save them or they'd be crushed completely. The man in black wanted the latter. The newer DigiDestined were meant to grow up to stop the darkness from taking over, so he would just have to crush the seed before it could grow. No trees of revolution could prosper if there were no seeds to begin with, after all.

* * *

When Tai arrived at TK and Kari's house, the first thing he noticed was the car in the driveway. It was a truck used for carrying small amounts of cargo, made clear by the square box behind the driver's seat. From what he could tell, the car was empty, so he looked past it. Agumon hopped out of the car as he noticed that there was somebody up at the front door. Tai instantly got the feeling that this person was the source of the issue and the reason why Kari had called him. She hadn't explained much over the phone, but she did say that there was somebody outside her house and she was incredibly frightened. Tai was just glad it wasn't a Digimon. He wasn't exactly ready to start an impromptu fight in the middle of Kari and TK's relatively calm neighborhood with a random Digimon.

However, while it wasn't a Digimon, a nagging part of his mind told him that the person there might be almost as bad. It had been around fifteen years since he'd last seen her, but Tai instantly knew who it was since she had caused so much trouble back when she had been in TK's life. It was Isara Hinoka,

"What are you doing here?" Tai asked, glaring at her with the force of seven suns.

Isara turned around and rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd show up. That wife of his is awfully needy. She could never just face her own problems. She was always calling on other people to take care of it... I'll never get how you ended up with my husband, sweetie. He was far better with me anyways. I taught him how to have guts. It may have hurt, but it's what he needed," she said, shooting a few glances back at the door nearby. "I see now that I'm not wanted here, so perhaps I should just go... You know I'll be back though, so what's the point? It's only a matter of time before I return and take what rightfully belongs to me."

"What do you even want?" Tai questioned, taking a step closer. Agumon seemed ready to fire an attack at a moment's notice.

"I'm here for my daughter," Isara told him simply. "However, my pathetic husband here refuses to do anything about that. I should have been the one to take her in the divorce, but here I am without any child at my side. You could have made this easier for yourself by simply letting me have her back then, TK. Why did you bother trying to keep her away from me when you knew I'd be back? I'm incredibly stubborn, as I'm sure you know. It was inevitable, but you were too stupid to take care of it back then."

"You have two minutes to get out of here." Tai took a few steps closer to her, ready to cue Agumon the second she tried to make a move. "Things will get ugly if you don't."

"Alright, alright... But be warned. Things are already advancing much faster than you realize. The end of you brats is drawing nearer with each second that passes. You'll see what I mean soon enough, but until then, enjoy what little life you have left," Isara said. She walked out to the van and opened the door before climbing inside. She drove away not long after, leaving just Tai and Agumon on the front porch of the house.

Tai dashed up to the door and knocked on it. "Kari? Are you okay?" he asked. Not even bothering to wait for her answer, he threw open the door and ran into the living room.

Kari, Gatomon, TK, and Patamon were all in there. Kari was visibly shaking as she stroked Gatomon's coat in a vain attempt to calm herself. TK simply stared down at the ground, Patamon curled up on his head with fear and concern clear in his eyes. Tai took a small step closer, unsure of what to say. He had never been the best with emotions. Anything he tried to say would likely only make them feel worse. They had all expected Isara to be forever out of their lives following the divorce, and yet, here she was once again. TK's right hand clenched into a fist. Tai could see the fear in his eyes despite how much he tried to hide it.

"I can't believe she's back," was all TK could make himself mutter. "I could have sworn that she would be out of our lives forever... I'm just glad the children weren't home. They wouldn't understand what's happening..."

"You haven't told them?" Tai asked. He had partially expected this since the subject was so touchy, but he couldn't help but be a little bit surprised it had stayed secret for so long. With information this important, one would expect it to worm its way out eventually.

"Of course not," TK said. "They grew up thinking that we're a normal family aside from the Digimon part. They don't know Isara exists. She doesn't know Isara exists. I didn't want her to know either. All those years, she was sure that Kari was her mother. Hearing that it was actually an abusive woman like that will definitely hurt her. I was thinking I'd be able to get away with not telling her too..."

"But she's back," Kari murmured. She leaned up against TK's arm and took his hand in her fingers. "This is... What are we going to do now? I don't know if we'll be able to keep it hidden if she's going to be back."

"I don't know," TK muttered numbly. "I don't know."

* * *

Mila was growing bored. Even after countless ideas had been proposed by Saki and Sato, she couldn't think of what it could be that dragged her father away. While Saki and Sato didn't seem to mind that he was gone, Mila couldn't help but feel like she was missing out on something. What if this was her call to adventure? What if this had something to do with the Digital World and she was missing it? After years of begging and pleading with whatever digital gods were out there, she still couldn't feel the excitement anywhere near her. Was she just doomed to live out a regular life forever without anything exciting going on?

She was ready to say something to her companions about her lack of adventure, but she didn't get the chance to. Instead, she felt the ground rumble and shake beneath her. When Mila tried to get to her feet, she was forcefully thrown backwards onto the couch. She glanced to Agumon, who seemed to be just as confused as she was. Saki, Gabumon, Sato, and Salamon didn't seem to be doing much better. Sato had fallen onto the floor and was holding onto the edge of the couch to keep from falling over further while Saki held Gabumon close to their chest. The rumbling seemed to be stretching on for an eternity.

Then, it was over. Mila couldn't help but feel relieved. Her heart was pounding in her chest. "What was that?" she asked weakly. "Did that feel like an earthquake to you?"

Gabumon dashed over to the nearby window and looked out of it. "I don't think so... Look at that!" He pointed up at the sky. An outline of a man could be seen floating in the middle of the blue. From what Mila could tell, he appeared to be on fire, but how was that even possible? People couldn't fly. People also weren't fireproof. The man seemed awfully calm for being ablaze as well, as if things couldn't get more peculiar already.

"Wait... What if that's a Digimon?" Mila asked. "It just has to be, right?"

"I can't really think of any other explanation," Sato said with a frown. "We have to go and see what's going on. If that is a Digimon, it's not one I recognize. I bet that it's an invader from the Digital World. I hope that somebody else is around here to help us out. I don't know if we can fight somebody that strong off..."

"Sure we can! You've got a Champion level partner, right?" Mila questioned. "I'm sure it'll be a piece of cake to take care of him if we all work together."

"I don't know about that," Saki cut in. They were looking at the screen of their Digivice. "That's no regular Digimon. I believe it's SkullMeramon. That's an Ultimate level Digimon, you know. Two Rookies and a Champion can't take out an Ultimate. Not even six Champions can take out an Ultimate most of the time."

"But we still have to try! At the very least, we need to attempt to hold him off until someone else arrives. I'm sure that one of our parents could take care of the situation much better. Until then, we need to make sure that no innocent people get hurt," Sato told them. "I don't want people to end up in trouble because of the Digimon. It will only cause more issues for us later on."

"Alright. Sounds good. Let's go and show this thing what we're made of!" Mila cheered. Even if the situation was undoubtedly a bit dire due to the sudden appearance of the Digimon, she didn't mind. She just wanted a taste of adventure after waiting and living a normal life for so long. After having heard stories from her parents for countless years about the Digital World, she couldn't help but want to go there herself. The way her father put it, the Digital World was filled with all sorts of excitement and new opportunities for quests and journeys. How could she not be drawn to something like that?

"Be careful," Saki warned. "Things could very easily go south for us. I don't want either one of you hurt either. Do you understand? Your parents would kill me for allowing something like that." They turned to Gabumon. The partners shared a quick nod before dashing off to the door to go after SkullMeramon.

Sato, Salamon, Mila, and Agumon followed closely behind. When they had all arrived outside, SkullMeramon was flying around overhead. Mila stared up at him, pondering if she should yell out to get his attention. However, this didn't end up being necessary. SkullMeramon stole a brief glance downwards and noticed the group of DigiDestined and Digimon below him. He slammed down onto the ground suddenly, sending a large shockwave outwards. Mila, Agumon, Saki, Gabumon, and Sato all stumbled. Salamon was only spared due to her position in the arms of her partner. SkullMeramon stamped his foot down once more. Flames crackled around where he stood, somehow making him even more threatening.

In other words, Mila was more excited than ever.

"Salamon, I think it's time for us to get this started," said Sato, sharing a knowing glance with his partner. Salamon responded with a curt nod. He pulled out his Digivice and punched in a few inputs. A patch of data appeared before him not long after. When he thrust his Digivice forwards, the data was accepted into the receiver instantly. The device murmured a few words about the new data before Salamon began to glow. Sato set her down on the ground and stepped back as the process was completed.

 _"Salamon, Digivolve to... Mikemon!"_

"Cat Claw!" Mikemon shouted as soon as she had Digivolved. She launched herself at SkullMeramon, slashing her claws at him. He ended up being wounded on the right arm, making him cry out in pain. He went to swat her away, but thanks to her agility, she was able to jump backwards and avoid being injured.

"Blue Blaster!" yelled Gabumon. He exhaled a sapphire flame that shot through the air towards SkullMeramon. It hit him in the chest, but he didn't seem to mind the attack. He simply stared down at where the fire had hit him and let out a laugh. He lunged towards Gabumon to punch him, but thankfully, Gabumon was able to dodge thanks to Agumon jumping into push him to safety. The two Digimon shared a mutual expression of thanks before returning their gaze to the Ultimate Digimon before them.

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon shouted next. It was his turn to breathe out fire now. Unfortunately, his attack wasn't much more successful than Gabumon's, only bouncing off SkullMeramon's leg. "I'm sorry, Mila! None of us can do anything to him! He's too strong for us at this point! It would take a miracle for us to come out on top!"

"Then maybe we'll just have to wait for a miracle," Mila frowned. "I mean, the past few times there have been Digimon attacks on our friends, a clutch Digivolution has come to the rescue. Maybe we'll be able to get that... Maybe it'll even be you to reach the next level! You'll definitely be able to save us all!"

"I don't know if you heard me earlier, so I'll say it again. This guy is an Ultimate. With two Champions and a Rookie, which we'd have with a 'clutch Digivolution', we'd still be at a large enough disadvantage that we wouldn't be able to win. We need one of the older DigiDestined to come and help us out here. They all have Mega level partners, or at the very least, Ultimates. They'll stand much more of a chance than us," Saki told her. "We just need to buy them time to get here. Somebody has to notice a Digimon is running amok in the city sooner or later. Until then, we only need to make sure that the innocent people don't get hurt."

Mila seemed to shrug it off. She looked to Agumon with a wide grin. "I have faith in you, buddy! You can definitely help us win this! You're the strongest Digimon I know!" she cried in encouragement. It was clear to the others what she was trying to do. Mila was attempting to ignite a Digivolution in Agumon. As of now, it didn't seem to be very successful, though nobody could say for sure. It was going to be unclear until any Digivices started talking, and since they hadn't...

"Metal Fireball!" shouted SkullMeramon. He expelled fire from his fist, which he punched forwards. The flames danced dangerously through the air towards Agumon, who was distracted because of Mila.

Mila saw the oncoming blow before he did. In a moment of adrenaline, she lunged towards her partner and knocked him to the ground. She was on top of him as she breathed heavily. The flames from the opponent had barely missed her, leaving her heart pounding at an incredibly rapid pace.

SkullMeramon seemed dazed after the attack had missed. He was a large guy, so it wasn't all that surprising to Mila. Anyone that big would have trouble keeping up with somebody as small as Mila. She was relieved for it. If not for his lack of speed, she and her partner would have been nothing but ashes.

Mila's Digivice began to beep from her belt. She gasped and removed it from its place. The screen was buzzing with activity. It wasn't long after before a small patch of orange data appeared before her. Mila felt her heart skip a beat in excitement. She had seen this before when Salamon had become a Champion! Her act of courage had caused the patch of data needed for Agumon to move on to appear!

Mila immediately stuck her Digivice out in front of her. The data was immediately accepted into the receiver. The device muttered a few words that Mila couldn't hear over the pounding of her heart in her chest. She jumped away from Agumon just before he began to glow in a bright yellow light.

"Agumon, Digivolve to... Agunimon!"

Mila gasped at the change of shape from her partner. He looked completely different now. It was as if he had never been her lovable little partner to begin with. Now, Agumon stood at around six feet tall and looked much more human. Mila knew for a fact that he looked nothing like her father's Agumon. He had turned into an even larger dinosaur while hers was now a humanoid warrior ready to face off against SkullMeramon.

"Looks like you finally got your wish," came a whisper from Saki's direction. Mila didn't even respond. She was far too awestruck by her partner to think about doing so.

Agunimon was his name. At the very least, that was what he had called himself. Mila was more impressed than she had ever been before. Finally overcoming her shock, she grinned. "Alright! Go take care of him!" she cried out, pointing her finger forward triumphantly.

Agunimon instantly followed her directions. In the blink of an eye, he was lunging towards SkullMeramon, flames dancing on his hands. He let loose a column of fire that shot towards SkullMeramon. Surprisingly enough, it had so much power behind it that the Ultimate actually stumbled and fell backwards. While he didn't completely lose his balance, it was still a start given how powerful he was. Mila counted it as a victory for sure.

"Take him down!" she shouted in excitement.

However, SkullMeramon didn't seem to be looking for a fight. Instead, he glanced around for a moment, searching for something. Mila had no idea what he could be looking for. She didn't have a chance to question it though. SkullMeramon launched towards Agunimon before throwing him into the side of Mila's home. A large dent appeared in the outside wall, but thankfully, that was the only damage done. She was sure her parents would understand if they realized that she, Saki, and Sato had all been attacked while at the house.

SkullMeramon took this as a chance to reach up towards the sky. Suddenly, dark clouds forged up above. They spiraled around for a few moments before letting loose a strike of lightning that hit the ground mere feet from SkullMeramon. A portal formed where the strike had hit. The blue rift seemed to be calling out for the Ultimate to enter it, but he seemed to have other ideas.

SkullMeramon began to run towards Saki, Gabumon, and Sato. He picked all of them up in one oversized hand and threw them into the rift. Their screams were cut short, barely heard by Mila. She let out a gasp of shock. They were gone.

SkullMeramon didn't give Mila, Agunimon, or Mikemon a chance to react. Instead, he kicked them all into the portal with two swift movements.

The next thing Mila knew, she was falling.

She didn't have much of a grip on reality as the world slipped past her. What could she do? Everything had gone out of her control so quickly. She didn't have a clue where she was going. Unless... There was one possibility...

Before she could properly form thoughts, she hit the ground hard. Breath was forced from her lungs, leaving her panting and clutching at her chest. She hadn't ever heard her heart slamming in her chest so quickly. She glanced around, hoping to see something resembling familiarity. Salamon and Agumon were near her, both having turned back on the way down. Both were bruised and barely conscious.

Mila managed to push herself up into a sitting position. Saki was helping Sato sit up a few feet away. The young boy was shaking madly. He scrambled over to Salamon and cradled her in his arms once he had gotten to his feet. Saki and Gabumon clung to one another as they approached Mila and Agumon. "What... What just happened?" Saki asked. For the first time ever, Mila heard their voice trembling, so she knew for sure something was seriously wrong. Mila got to her feet before helping Agumon up. She was unsurprised to see her hands were shaking furiously from either fear, adrenaline, or both.

"I think we went through a portal," said Salamon from Sato's arms. Sato was gently stroking her face to keep from beginning to cry over the stress of the situation. "I can't say for sure, but... I think I know where we are..."

"Don't tell me..." Saki whispered, eyes going wide. "We can't possibly be..."

"I think we're in the Digital World," Salamon declared. "I think that portal dropped us straight into the middle of the Digital World."

* * *

 _ **Sorry about the lateness of this update. I had a choir concert last night, so I didn't have time to finish off this update. On top of that, it's Hell Week(TM), aka my school is hosting a forensics tournament. I've been busy trying to throw together a tourney, so I've had a lot to do.**_

 _ **Anyways, here's the update! I'll be updating QATH twice next week. Also, I'll be getting an AO3 account to cross post soon. I'll tell you when that's done!**_

 _ **Until then, I hope you enjoyed!**_

 _ **-Digital**_


	13. 13) Lost

It was a couple of hours later that Chris was finally able to come back from Everleigh's house. Her heart was pounding as she approached the front door. She was more than a little bit afraid of what could force her away for so long. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't good. She took a deep breath and slid the door opened, trying to calm down the anxious thoughts swirling in her head. Chris prayed internally that there wasn't anything really bad happening. After being stressed out for a few hours, she didn't know how she'd be able to take grave and serious news.

Her parents were sitting silently in the living room along with Tai. None of them were saying anything, which wasn't a good sign. "What happened?" Chris eventually spat out, not in the mood to mince words. She tried to make herself say something else, but the phrases simply wouldn't form.

"It's a long story," Kari whispered. Gatomon was sitting on her lap, eyes portraying a cool yet unreadable expression. Patamon was the same way, though a small tint of worry could be seen in his eyes. "Just... Try not to interact with many people for a while, okay?"

"What? I don't understand," Chris said. Her Patamon was sitting on her head. At Kari's words, he began to hold on a bit tighter. He was just as nervous as she was.

"It's a long story. Just trust her on this," Tai said simply. "I should be getting home. Sora's going to be back from work any minute now. I don't want her panicking."

"She probably should be after what happened today," Agumon remarked.

Tai sighed. "You know how she gets when she's riled up. I wouldn't exactly call that ideal."

"Stay out of trouble," TK instructed of him. He had refused to meet anyone's eyes this entire conversation, which was only serving to worry his daughter further.

"Call me if you need anything," Tai told Kari, who responded with a nod. He and Agumon walked out not long after, leaving Kari, TK, Chris, and their Digimon all sitting there in silence.

"What happened here?" Chris asked again, praying that she'd get an answer. So far, all she'd gotten were evasive side comments. Was it really too much to ask for something substantial?

"It's a long story," Kari murmured. She got to her feet and pressed a kiss to Chris' forehead. "Don't worry about it. You know to be careful out there, right?"

"Of course. You know me. I'm as cautious as can be," Chris reminded her. "You have nothing to worry about, if that's what all of this is about... But... What did happen? It sounds bad. Are we in danger or something?"

Nobody said anything in the moments that followed. Kari stood quietly for a few seconds before sighing and starting to walk away. "I'm going to start dinner," she declared, trying to sound confident. Anyone who looked close enough could see that she was shaking gently.

TK began to walk away as well. "Stay out of trouble," he said simply before leaving the room. Patamon flew after him, shooting a glance of pity at Chris.

"I don't get any of this," she sighed in frustration, sitting down on the couch. "What could be so bad that they don't even want to mention it? If I wasn't able to come home because of it, it can't be good, so why not just come out and say that something bad happened? I'm bound to figure it out eventually, so they might as well just make it easy and be up front about it."

Patamon let out a sigh. "I wish I could tell you what happened. It seems they aren't going to be giving it up soon though. All we can do is wonder until they decide it's the right time to talk about it, though I do get your frustration," he told her.

"If we are in danger or something like that, then I need to know. I don't want to be at risk but not know about it. That could be a recipe for disaster. I don't want something like that to happen. The others may crave adventure in the Digital World, but I don't need that. We've seen enough violence already. Why do we need to go through all of this? As much as I'd like to avoid it, I feel like knowledge of what could happen is necessary to stay safe," Chris said. She shook her head. "I guess I can just let it go for now. Maybe this will never happen again. I hope nothing like this happens again. It's been a long time since I've seen my parents so stressed. If this repeats, I doubt that they'll be able to keep their fear under control."

"I guess we can only wait for right now. Until something happens, what can we do?" asked Patamon. "Let's think about other things for now. Where's your brother? I would have expected him to be home by now. Wasn't he hanging out with Saki and Mila today at their house?"

"I bet it won't be long. You heard my uncle. They're probably home alone since Aunt Sora isn't home yet. I bet that he was in a hurry to come over here and resolve whatever happened. It's hard for Sato to come home if he doesn't have a ride. As soon as Aunt Sora gets home from work, she can bring him over," Chris pointed out.

"You're right," Patamon agreed. "Let's head up to your room for a little bit until it's time for dinner. Don't you have a new book you wanted to crack into?"

"Good point," Chris said, a small smile appearing on her face. She turned on her heel and began to dash up to her room, hoping that the new book she had bought would be able to rip these fearful thoughts from her head. She wasn't sure if it would work, but she could at least be a little hopeful.

* * *

When Sora arrived back at home, the first thing she noticed was the carnage.

The side of her home was not in good shape, and that was probably putting it lightly. There were burn marks all over the outer wall. The grass wasn't in good shape either. The way everything was shaped was too unnatural to have been created by normal causes. There was only one way that this could have happened, and she was praying that wasn't the case.

"What happened?" she murmured under her breath as Biyomon got out of the car. She didn't wait for her partner Digimon, instead dashing up to the front door. It was unlocked, which wasn't a good sign. Mila, Saki, Sato, and their partners were supposed to be here. Wasn't Tai meant to be watching them as well? If they weren't here, then where were they?

"Mila?" Sora asked of the empty house, hoping with all her might that some distant voice would cry out in response. She doubted that would be the case, but she was still holding onto some internal prayer that things were alright. She didn't know how she'd handle it if things had gone downhill.

"Mila?" Sora questioned again, her voice growing more agitated as the seconds crawled on. Time seemed to be slowing down just for her to squirm silently in her fears and anxiety. Where was Mila? Why hadn't she come out yet? Had she been hurt in whatever incident had taken place outside?

Biyomon came inside not long after. "I don't think she's here," she said softly, hoping that her partner would be able to emotionally take whatever tragedy had taken place. "When I was outside, I sensed something... I think it might have been a portal to the Digital World. If you ask me, there's a chance that's where everyone got off to."

Sora froze instantly. This couldn't be happening. She had thought that the recent Digmon attacks were one-offs, that they wouldn't happen again. However, all this did was confirm that something bad was happening again.

Even when Mila and Xen had been younger children, Sora knew that they would eventually be tied up into the affairs of the other world. It had happened to her when she was only ten, and since they had her blood in their veins, it was inevitable for them as well.

However, this didn't help her at all in preparing for it. No matter how many years she knew it was going to happen, it didn't change the horrible feeling in her gut, the twisting in her stomach, when Sora realized it was finally happening. There was nothing she could do to stop it, and she knew that, but at the same time, she hated herself for not being there for them.

Sora heard a car pulling up. She dashed out of the house, Biyomon following after her. It was Tai. At least he was still in the real world... But if he was here, where were the kids? Why weren't they with him?

"What happened here?" he asked in shock as Agumon hopped out of the passenger seat of the car.

"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Sora cried out. "The kids aren't inside! Where are they?!"

"When I left, they were all here. They were fine," Tai murmured. "Something must have happened while I was gone..."

"No," Sora whispered in denial. "Why did you leave? What happened? It couldn't have been a Digimon attack. We would have heard about that on the news."

"No... It was a human causing issues this time around," Tai told her, looking down at the ground. "I'm sure that you remember Isara Hinoka from a long time ago, yes? She and TK had a thing for each other back when they were younger, but that ended up going downhill..."

"She's back?" Sora asked. "I thought that nobody had seen her in years... I didn't think that we'd ever cross paths with her again..."

"She was at TK and Kari's house, demanding that they let her see her daughter. When they refused and locked themselves inside, she tried to get in anyways. I went down there to make sure that they were feeling okay and to get rid of her," Tai explained. "The kids should have been fine on their own. I trust them all enough to stay out of trouble..."

"Then maybe it wasn't them that caused all this. I agree that they're responsible enough to stay out of any danger on purpose, but... What if it wasn't on purpose? What if they were attacked?" Sora asked. She felt her heart skip a beat at the mere thought of it. Even if part of her knew fully well that this was the truth, she didn't feel ready to believe it.

"Digimon," Tai whispered. "We have to call Izzy. He has to know how to figure out where they are. Doesn't he have a tracker in their Digivices? They always keep them, so we can use those to find them. I'm going to go call him. He can tell us if they're in the real world or not as well. If not, then it's going to be time for a little expedition."

Sora swallowed her fear and nodded as Tai dashed away. She had known this was going to happen for years, but now that it had finally happened, she was unprepared. They only had one Champion Digimon to her knowledge. She didn't know if Gabumon had reached the next level, and she knew Agumon hadn't. Mila would have told her. That meant that they were alone in the Digital World with two Rookies and Mikemon to protect them.

Her stomach turned into a tight knot. She prayed that this wasn't the case, even if she knew it was. Sora hoped with everything she had that they were safe over there, though a dark part of her mind said that they were hurt or otherwise in trouble...

Even Mila was unsettled when they realized they were stuck in the Digital World. She had longed for adventure, sure, but she hadn't wanted something like this. Mila wanted to see excitement, but she didn't want to be stuck in another world that she hadn't ever been to. That was just a recipe for disaster.

* * *

Sato hadn't stopped pacing since they had arrived. He was trying to figure out some way to get back, even if he didn't know where they were. Saki was curled up on the ground, hugging their knees to their chest quietly.

"At least we don't have to worry about our assailant from before," Saki pointed out, trying desperately to make the situation seem brighter than it was. That was when Mila realized they were really screwed. Saki was a well-known pessimist, so the fact that they were attempting to cheer everybody else up meant things weren't going well, though Mila could see that well enough for herself.

"They have to notice that we're gone soon enough," Sato muttered. "They can't just leave us over here. We could get really hurt. Somebody has to know that we're here, right?"

"Mila's street was empty as can be during the Digimon attack. Nobody seemed to notice it was going on. If anybody did see it, they probably turned tail and ran before they could see that we had been shoved through the portal," Saki reminded him. "We're going to have to wait for Mila's parents to come home and see the destruction. Ren's father knows a lot about this technical stuff. If he hears that we've gone missing, he should be able to help."

"But what do we do until then? We're in all sorts of trouble right now. We've never been to the Digital World before. There are probably powerful monsters just like the one we were fighting all over the place. We could be ambushed at any moment. That guy could come back. We can't fight him off with two Champions. I heard once from my father that six Champions had trouble taking down an Ultimate once. Two of them won't do us any good. We're as good as dead," Sato murmured, continuing to pace back and forth. Salamon stared up at him with a frown, wanting badly to comfort him but lacking the knowledge on how to.

"We still need to make an attempt to get by. If we die here, our parents are going to be very upset about it," Mila said. "Let's find a cave or something. Maybe there will be a village around here somewhere that we can hide out in for the night."

"Alright. Let's get to it then. Staying out here in the open is just like asking for the enemy to find us and pound us into oblivion," Saki agreed, getting to their feet with the help of Gabumon.

"Do you guys know anything about where we should be going?" asked Mila as she looked to Agumon.

"No. We've never been here. We were only ever eggs here in the Digital World. We were moved over to the human world just before we hatched, so we don't know our way around," Agumon explained to her. "We're just as blind in here as you are."

"We're in so much trouble!" Sato cried out, unable to keep his anguish in any longer. "If anybody finds us, we'll never get back home! How can we figure out a way to stay hidden long enough for our parents to find us?"

"We'll figure out a way to handle things," Saki assured him. There it was again. Saki was being optimistic. Somehow, that made Mila more nervous than hopeful, given the nature of Saki. "For now, let's try to remain positive. It won't do us any good if we end up too nervous to act should something happen to us. Plus, we need to get moving if we're going to find food. Judging by the tired look on Salamon's face, she can't evolve to defend us should we need it. At the very least, we need to feed her, so we can fight back."

"I'm feeling pretty hungry too. I just evolved for the first time. I'm not used to it yet," Agumon said. "Let's try and find a village or something so that we can all eat. I don't want anyone going hungry. Sure, we haven't been here long, but it wouldn't do us any good if we starved before your parents got here to help us out."

"Then I guess it's time to do some exploring," Mila declared. "Here's to hoping that nothing bad happens on the way to the nearest town. I don't know if I'd be able to take that."

"Adventure is a lot more tiring than you expected, huh?" asked Saki, turning to face Mila. "You were so excited about it, but now that we're finally here, you seem scared."

"I didn't think that we'd end up trapped in another world with no protection!" Mila cried out. "That happened with our parents, sure, but every group since has known what's going on around here! I thought that we'd be able to use guidance from them to explore and generally have a grand time, but apparently, that wasn't meant to be. We're going to have to figure out how to get around on our own, which is a lot less exciting. I don't exactly want to die here, but it seems like that might actually happen given the circumstances."

"Talking about potentially dying won't help any of us. Let's just get moving and try to find some food. How does that sound?" Saki asked.

Nobody objected. At Mila's instruction, the group began to walk east, each one fearful of what might await them the further they traveled. There was the constant threat of attack, so not even Mila could relax and enjoy the journey as they attempted to find a way to a safer location.

* * *

Izzy was breathless when he arrived at the Kamiya house. He was carrying his laptop under one arm while Tentomon hovered just behind him. "I came as quickly as I could," he explained between heavy breaths. His car was parked sloppily in the driveway. "What happened that you needed me so soon? You scared me half to death!" Izzy remarked.

"Did you see the house?" Tai asked from the doorway. He pointed nearby at the outlines of scorch marks that lined the side of the building. "We think it was a Digimon attack. Mila, Agumon, Saki, Gabumon, Sato, and Salamon were all home alone. While we were out, they were attacked. We came back to find them gone and the side of the house a mess. I was hoping that you'd be able to figure out where they disappeared to. You can track their Digivices, right?"

"Of course," Izzy nodded. He rushed inside as Tai moved to the side before opening up his laptop. His fingers seemed to work at the speed of light as he logged in and began playing around with the various programs. When he found what he was looking for, he tapped at the side of his laptop impatiently, waiting for the program to load.

"How long do you think this will take?" asked Tai. "Sora's been panicking constantly since she found out. I don't like seeing her like that."

"It's okay to just say that you're worried, Tai," Izzy told him. When the program had finished loading, he went back to tapping away at the keyboard quickly. "It won't take very long. If you give me about ten minutes, I can figure out what happened to them. Can you explain in detail what happened to them in the meantime?" Izzy slid one finger along the mousepad, clicking on a small icon that had a picture of the original Digivice model on it.

"I was out to deal with family issues," Tai began, not wanting to get into the situation with Isara again. He hated thinking of her, much less talking about her. Isara did nothing but bring up unpleasant memories of the events from fifteen years before, so he preferred to avoid thinking about her if it was possible. "I left the kids alone here with their partners. They've been home alone dozens of times. I thought that it would be fine this time too. Besides, I was in too much of a rush to take them somewhere else at the time, and I couldn't exactly take them with me."

"I heard about what happened with Isara," Izzy told him, continuing to type. "Kari mentioned it to Mimi about an hour ago. She called me afterwards to explain what went down. Why was she even there? I didn't catch that part. Mimi was talking a bit too quickly for me to properly understand what she was saying."

"Apparently, she was desperate to see the daughter she never took interest in until today," Tai explained.

Izzy shook his head. "What happened next? When you got back?" he asked.

"The side of the house was a disaster, as I'm sure you already saw. Sora looked around and realized that they were gone. She's been in a bit of a panic ever since. Neither one of us expected them to be wrapped up in a Digimon attack while we were gone and judging by the carnage it wasn't an even fight. That only freaks her out more," Tai went on. "She's been a mess. She can't stop pacing. Biyomon has to do everything in her power to keep her from losing it."

"Let me guess. They were gone when you got back, right?" Izzy questioned. He seemed to be close to finding what he needed. His eyes lit up when he tapped on another application. A loading bar appeared on the screen. It filled with a blue color quickly.

"You got it," nodded Tai. "I don't know what happened to them. I can't even figure out who it was that took them. If it was a Digimon, they could either be held hostage somewhere in this world or the other one. The alternative is that they're wandering around over there with no clue what they should be doing to get back home. I can't tell which one is worse."

"I found them!" Izzy cried out, bringing Tai's fears to a sudden stop. He watched as Izzy pointed on the screen at a trio of dots moving along a map. "They're in the Digital World. From what I can tell, they're moving towards Primary Village. Elecmon should be there. That means that they're at least near somewhere safe, so they should be okay by the time that we get there to help out."

Tai let out a breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. "That's good," he whispered, feeling his heart begin to slow back to a regular pace. "How long will it take to get to them? Isn't there a portal near the village? It shouldn't be hard to jump through a gate and go see them, right?"

"No, it shouldn't. I think that we can do that easily. However, we'll have to be careful. I don't see any signs of somebody having entered the portal through regular methods. That means that somebody else opened up the gate for them and sent them through it. If we're up against something or someone with that power, we'll have to be careful. If they grow angry or realize that they can do other things to the kids, they could be able to send them through a portal to another world. I'm sure that you remember the Dark Ocean. With enough power, whatever pushed them to the Digital World could easily push them back through another portal over there," Izzy told Tai. "It isn't good. We can't let that happen. It'll be harder to track them in other worlds that we know less about."

"In other words, we have to hurry to get to them as soon as possible," Tai nodded. "I think we can do that. All we really have to do is call Matt, get him with us, and then head over there. He'd be mad if we chose to leave him out with Saki over there. As much as I love the guy, I don't want to see him angry. He's downright terrifying like that."

"I must agree," Izzy replied reluctantly. "How soon do you think you want to go? You'll need supplies before you go through the portal. Going in unprepared is a recipe for disaster."

"Then I'll prepare myself and then go in," Tai said quickly. "I'll go, grab Sora, and we can take care of this. No problem. I'll call Kari first and tell her that Sato is on the other side. She's going to panic if she doesn't hear from him soon. She's already miserable enough as it is. I don't need her having a panic attack from all of this."

"Good idea," Izzy nodded. "I'll contact Matt. Here's to hoping that he doesn't rip my head off when he hears. We know how he gets." The redhead pulled out his phone and typed a few things into it before pressing it to his ear. He continued to type away on his laptop as he waited for his friend to pick up.

Tai got to his feet to go and see Sora. She was going to be happy to hear that Mila was okay. Plus, he'd need her to go and pick up Xen now. If Tai was going to the Digital World, she would have to either figure out something for Xen or bring him home. It was going to be up to her if she wanted to come along or not, though he suspected that she'd be eager to follow him there. He could figure it out later. For now, he was ready to do everything he needed to in order to bring Mila back home.

* * *

"I think I see something in the distance!" Mila cried out after the group had been walking for roughly an hour. Her feet were beginning to throb, but seeing the town off in the distance, regardless of how far it was, renewed her hope in an instant. She was ready to run all the way there if she needed to.

"Then let's go!" Agumon exclaimed. He began to run, though he tripped over a rock and ended up falling down to the ground. Mila let out a small laugh and picked him up before starting to go towards the distant town.

"Hold on," Gabumon cut in, making both Mila and Agumon stop in their tracks. "I sense something... I don't think we should be going there. Call it a gut instinct, but I feel as if something has gone wrong. Let's keep walking. I'm sure that we'll find another safe place to stay soon. We shouldn't go there."

"But there could be shelter!" Mila shouted, frowning. "I think that we should take that risk. It's either we go there or risk being caught by a Digimon out here in the open who wants to fry us. I'd rather take my chances with a creepy town than die because of an assault. Wouldn't you agree?"

"We should still be careful. We don't have any backup plans to fall back on if something goes wrong since our Digimon haven't eaten in ages. Going somewhere dangerous could be risky since we don't have a way to defend ourselves. They can't evolve. We need to be on the safe side," Saki chimed in.

"Maybe we could go a little bit closer and see what happens. If we get there and see that things aren't going well there, we can turn around and go somewhere else. At the very least, we should try and see what's going on there. If it's safe and we ignore it, then that's risky. It could be ages before we find another place that we can stay in. For now, let's go and scout the area. If it's dangerous, we can just leave. If not, we'll have a safe place to stay in. Does that sound okay with you guys?" Sato asked.

"Okay!" Salamon exclaimed. "I hope that it's a safe place to stay... I'm not used to walking this much. I'm already getting tired. The lack of food probably isn't helping us out much. The least we can do is look."

All this talk about the destination being dangerous was putting a damper on Mila's spirits. She no longer had the energy to just run to the town, village, or whatever it was that was off in the distance. She just wanted to stay alive at this point, but according to the Digital World, that was probably too much to ask for. She shuffled her feet as she went forwards, Agumon at her side. Saki and Gabumon took up the rear with Sato and Salamon in the middle.

There weren't any signs of trouble yet. Aside from Gabumon's gut instinct, everything seemed completely normal, which was a good sign. Besides, there was always the chance that he was just wrong. If that was the case, then there was nothing to worry about. Mila was holding onto the hope that everything would be fine for the next fifteen minutes as the group went closer to the village.

Suddenly, Agumon stopped.

The village that they had been looking for was in shambles. There was smoke curling upwards from the buildings. A small piece of red could be seen among the dark gray dust. Ask had settled in a thin blanket over the grass, which no longer was a bright green. The scene was unsettling, and that was putting it lightly.

Mila had only one question as she stared at the area, which looked like it was on the verge of collapsed. What in the world had happened here?

* * *

 _ **I typed this entire chapter in a day. I have dedication and too much free time.**_

 _ **I typed a total of 6000 words today. In fact, this update was finished a week early (on Friday). I waited to update it though since Thursday is my day.**_

 _ **I'm being dragged off to dinner soon so I'm going to go. Thanks for reading!**_

 _ **-Digital**_


	14. 14) The Other Side

The Takaishi home was covered with an eerie layer of silence. Night had fallen, but nobody could sleep. TK and Kari couldn't help but think about what had happened to their son, who was trapped in the Digital World without any experience in fighting outside what little had taken place in the city as of late. After all those years of exploring the Digital World themselves, they were finally feeling the stress their parents had known for so long back when they had been children.

Chris was sitting upright in her room, hugging her legs to her chest wordlessly. Patamon was sitting beside her as the TV prattled mindlessly before her. She opened her mouth to say something, but words refused to leave her mouth. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know what we're going to do. My brother is stuck in the Digital World with Mila and Saki. They don't know how to keep themselves safe since they've never been there. And if that wasn't bad enough, my parents have gone silent about what happened earlier. I don't get it. Why won't they tell us what's been going on?" She let out a huff and shook her head. "I wish they would just say something..."

"I don't think it's the safest thing, whatever it is," Patamon remarked. "I have a bad feeling about what's been happening today... You should get to sleep though. Tomorrow might be Sunday, but you have school the day after. We can't have you getting sick with all that's going on."

"It'll just stress out my parents," Chris nodded. "I don't want that with Sato gone as it is... I feel so helpless sitting around here like this. Bumps on pickles are more helpful. Sato is trapped over there, and Mom and Dad won't say a thing... I almost want to go after him, but I know that isn't a good idea. We'll just end up in even more trouble if we try to do that. I don't even want to imagine how angry my parents will be if they hear I tried something so risky. It makes me feel awful knowing there isn't anything we can do... I hope they have this under control..."

"I'm sure that they'll take care of things. Everything will go back to normal soon," Patamon assured her, curling up in a ball on her bed. "I'm worried too, but we can't do anything about it now. Let's try to get some sleep for now, alright? I don't want you getting sick. Your mom will freak out if you fall ill now."

Chris nodded slowly. "Alright," she agreed, positioning herself against the mattress slowly. Her eyes slipped closed, but she knew just as well as Patamon that she wasn't going to be getting to sleep for quite some time due to all that had happened. It was going to be at least an hour before the exhaustion kicked in, so it was time to start waiting, it seemed.

* * *

The village Mila, Agumon, Saki, Gabumon, Sato, and Salamon had found was covered in smoke. Mila took a small step closer, kicking a stray pebble out of the way with a frown. "This isn't good," she muttered. "Whatever happened here, it was violent. I don't see a sign of life for miles..."

"What if it was that same Digimon that attacked us back at home?" Sato asked, pulling Salamon close to his chest. "If that's the case, I don't even want to imagine how many people could have been hurt... Well, I say people, but I think most of the casualties would be Digimon..."

"I find this place a little bit familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on where I would know it from," Saki remarked, crossing their arms over their chest. "Do you get that feeling too? I wish I knew why my gut was telling me this, but I'm clueless, I'm afraid."

"Maybe we'll figure it out with a little bit of looking around," suggested Sato. "We might as well make the most of our time here. We can't really fight, but any information we can take back to our parents will surely be useful to them. I can't imagine them rejecting whatever we find out here."

"You're right. Let's do it," Salamon agreed. "Where should we start?"

"I guess we should go from where we are now," Mila replied with a shrug. "I don't know what we'll find here, but I'm a little nervous..."

"I suppose that's natural since we're trapped in another world and just found a scene of major destruction," Sato commented with a frown. "Just thinking about what could happen to us has me scared... I hope that you are a bit more confident than I am about all of this..."

"Not exactly," Agumon admitted. "Mila seems pretty excited about it though."

"Not at all," Mila admitted with a huff. "I was hoping excitement and adventure would come in a different way. We're on the run from a crazy fire Digimon that wants us dead. He managed to not only get through the portal to the real world, but also to break us through with him after we battled him. That's some serious power."

"And some unnatural power," Gabumon pointed out. "No Digimon can do something like that on their own. A greater force would have to be at work in order for a Digimon to go through the gate. For the most part, it remains closed. A DigiDestined can open the gateway, but not many others have that sort of power."

"Then who opened it from this side? I don't know of any DigiDestined that stayed over here," Mila asked. "I can't think of any reason for why somebody would want to do that either. Isn't it risky to remain here for long periods of time? The childhoods of our parents should be enough of an example of that. We can ask when they show up to take us home. Maybe they'll have some ideas."

"If it isn't one of you, then who could it be? Who would be able to break through the gate in this way?" asked Salamon. "I don't get it. Nobody over here has that power unless they're some sort of powerful ruler. I don't know why a ruler would want to send an enemy over to our side of the gate though..."

"We can think of it a bit later. For now, let's focus on trying to get out of this situation alive," Saki suggested.

"You sure are blunt," Mila commented.

"Blunt I may be, but I'm also telling the truth. If we aren't focused on trying to get home, we could end up stuck here. I doubt you want something like that with how dangerous this place is. If even your adventurous spirit can fade here, you can tell that it's serious," Saki responded.

"I'm sure that there's some information around here for us to gather," Agumon cut in. "Anything we can find will be good, right?"

Salamon's nose began to twitch. She began to frown. "I think I smell somebody nearby. I can't tell who it is, but something isn't right. I think it has something to do with the battle that took place," she declared. "Let's keep going. I'll know when we've found our person."

The pace was picked up after Salamon said that. Saki glanced around before pointing to a nearby rock. It was twitching slowly, like somebody was trying to push it away. They dashed up to the stone and lifted it from the bottom despite Gabumon's calls to get them to stop in case it was dangerous.

Saki hurled the rock out of the way to show a small Digimon. The creature was red with purple stripes on its back and bright blue eyes. The eyes met Saki's, leaving them startled. They didn't say anything, seemingly not afraid.

"Who are you?" asked Mila, coming up behind Saki. "Agumon, if he moves too much, you know what to do."

The Digimon let out a gasp and shook his head. "No, no, you don't need to do that!" he cried out. "You're DigiDestined!"

"What's it to you?" Mila questioned, suddenly hostile. It seemed she had gotten her suspicions against most things from her father.

"I was a friend of your parents!" the Digimon exclaimed, coming up to his feet. His legs began to shake, causing him to crash back into the ground. He shook his head. "I'm not exactly in the best shape now, but I promise you that I'm not lying."

"I don't think he would be able to do anything to hurt us if he wasn't on our side anyways," Salamon pointed out.

"You know, I think I just realized why this place seems so familiar," Gabumon frowned. "I couldn't put a finger on it before, but I think this might be the birthplace of all Digimon. I think this is where we were all first hatched before meeting our partners."

"Wasn't that place called Primary Village?" asked Sato. "I think my father mentioned it once. He was really close friends with the guardian of the village, a Digimon named Elecmon."

The red Digimon before them waved his arms. "That would be me," he declared. "I think I know who you're talking about. You look a lot like TK, you know..."

"That's him!" Sato exclaimed. "I guess you really did know our parents..."

"Of course, I did!" Elecmon told him. "Do you know where they are? Why are you here alone? I didn't think you were supposed to be here without them. Have any of you ever even been here?"

"Once," Saki said. "I was with my father at the time. He came by to pick up my Digimon partner, Gabumon here. He wanted me to come along with him to see the Digital World for the first time, so I came with him. I think we came to this very village, now that I think about it. I didn't even recognize the place with how much it had changed."

"How come you got to come here as a kid?" Mila groaned. "I didn't get to do that."

"My dad's just cooler than yours," Saki shrugged, making Mila sigh angrily. They responded by laughing.

"What happened here?" Agumon asked Elecmon to get the conversation back on topic. "It looks like somebody came through to burn the whole village down."

"Can you answer my questions about why you're here first, if that's okay?" Elecmon asked. "I can tell you what happened in a moment."

"We were attacked by a Digimon. He showed up at my house earlier today and attacked us. We were sort of able to defend ourselves, but it didn't work for long. He opened a portal to the Digital World that we were all caught up in. We landed a few miles away from here and started walking in hopes we'd find something," Mila explained. "Maybe you've seen him. He's made of blue fire and wears a silver mask-looking thing."

Elecmon's face grew stony and solemn. "I wish I didn't know him," he murmured. "SkullMeramon came through this very village earlier today and burned it to the ground. Countless baby Digimon died before even hatching because of it. Only a few of them are left now."

Saki looked over to Mila, who was frowning deeply. "That's not good," Mila muttered. "I wonder who told him to go through this area and kill everything. Why did he show up at my house earlier? I don't get any of this."

"More and more Digimon attacks have been taking place lately. If you ask me, this means something else is behind this. Somebody is making them attack us. There's another force out there that's causing all of this to happen. That's not good, in case you didn't already see," frowned Saki. "I don't know a thing about what's causing this, but that might be for the best. I don't know how we're going to deal with all that's happened."

"Are you parents on their way to take you home? The Digital World has never been the safest place for humans, but I can't trust anything after what happened earlier," Elecmon said, looking down at the ground.

"Do you blame yourself for what happened?" asked Sato, crouching down next to Elecmon. He placed on hand on the Digimon's neck and stroked him gently. "You don't need to. It wasn't your fault. SkullMeramon did this by invading the village to begin with."

Elecmon let out a deep sigh. "I need to talk to your parents when they come into the Digital World to pick you up. They need to know about what's been happening. We might need their help again. We might even need your help to fend off this new threat, whatever it is," he told the group. "You'll have to be careful though. You're still young and don't know what you're doing. Rushing into fights without any experience will just result in you getting hurt. Your parents don't need that with how much stress they're already under as DigiDestined."

"We'll stay out of trouble," Sato assured him. "Everything will be fine. Don't worry one little bit."

"Do you think we'd be able to stay here for the time being?" Saki asked. "We could help you clean up the wreckage. We can even take care of the remaining babies if you need it. I know that you're not exactly in the best state because of the attack. We'll be glad to help, okay?"

Elecmon pondered this before nodding. "Alright. I can't exactly defend this place if somebody else shows up at this point. It's far too dangerous. I don't know how well we'd fare against SkullMeramon if he returned, but I could still use the help regardless," he replied. "The babies are all hiding in a building at the center of town. It was one of the only ones to stay standing in the attack."

"Do you need any help getting over there?" asked Mila, extending a hand down to Elecmon. "You still aren't looking too great."

Elecmon got to his feet shakily. "I'll be fine," he replied. "Let's just go and see the babies. They'll be happy to see friendly faces after what they've been through today."

"What's going to happen to the babies that were killed in the attack?" asked Sato. "Are they going to come back someday?"

Elecmon nodded. "Thankfully, the village wasn't poisoned by the attack. If it ends up poisoned, no babies can be born until a cure is found. They'll all be back within the next few days, but they're bound to be scared. Until your parents come back, any help you can give me with taking care of them will be appreciated," he told them. "I'm sure they won't mind pitching in a little bit if they need it."

"Is this the first big attack like this?" Gabumon questioned. "Have any others taken place recently?"

"No, not at all. It was just this one today," Elecmon replied. "I haven't heard of anything else on this scale taking place in years. The last time the village was attacked, it was before you all were born. Your parents weren't even married yet at the time."

"That was ages ago," Agumon gasped. "I guess they were pretty good at restoring peace to this place when it needed it."

"You got that right. I've lost count of how many times they were here to save the world from destruction of some sort," Elecmon said. "Regardless of how much it's happened, they've always been a huge help."

"It's probably getting later back at home," murmured Saki. "I wonder when they'll be able to come out of the real world to rescue us. It will probably be tomorrow at the latest. They won't want to leave us here for too long given how dangerous it can get."

"I wish they'd come soon," Sato admitted. "I don't like being here. With what Elecmon said happened earlier, I'm more scared than ever. I never really wanted to come here and fulfill whatever digital destiny awaited me, and now, I don't want to do it at all. I wish we didn't have to get tied up in this mess."

"We can still make the most of it," Mila told him. "Don't worry yourself too much. If we ever need to take care of things, we'll all be together. Plus, we'll probably be able to come back and forth between this place and home, which will take away a lot of the pressure. Just being here is a bit stress-inducing since it happened against our will."

"That's putting it lightly," Saki murmured. "Let's start walking back to the center of the village. We won't be able to get anything done if we stay around here. Those babies are waiting for help. I don't want them to be alone for any longer than they have to, especially considering how young they are."

Elecmon nodded and began walking back towards the center of the village. "Most of them are a little bit shy because they're so young. Also, be warned. They like to spit bubbles when they're scared. With what's happened, the place will be filled with bubbles. They don't hurt, but there's going to be a lot of them," he cautioned. "I hope you don't mind that."

"It's fine," Mila assured him. "I'm sure they're going to be adorable."

"I remember the days when Patamon only spit bubbles," Sato giggled to Salamon. "I was really little at the time, but there were always bubbles all over my sister's room because of it. It was nearly impossible to find something dry because of all the bubbles..."

"That sounds like a baby Digimon alright," Elecmon remarked with a laugh. "They're cute, but they sure do love those bubbles..."

"I'm sure we can handle it. Bubbles are probably the least of our worries now," Saki remarked. "This will be a nice break from all that's happened today."

* * *

A few hours had passed since the three children had disappeared through the gateway. Back in Odaiba, plans were already being made for the Digital World expedition despite the late hour.

Tai was pulling together all of the supplies he thought he would need. It was nearing two in the morning, but despite his exhaustion, Tai didn't bother sleeping. He knew it wasn't going to be working anyways with the knowledge Mila was trapped on the other side plaguing him. He might as well be useful if he couldn't sleep.

Sora walked into the room and let out a sigh. "I finally got Xen down for the night. He was too nervous to sleep," she told Tai, picking up a flashlight and dropping it into the bag he was packing. "He doesn't want you to go into the Digital World to keep you from getting hurt."

"We don't have a choice," Tai whispered with a shake of his head. "We can't just leave them over there. They can't defend themselves from what lies on the other side."

"Why are you packing so much?" Sora asked, looking down at his bag. "Isn't it supposed to be a simple operation?"

"Izzy wanted us to be prepared. He said there was something wrong in an area near where they were, about six miles from the village. Plus, if the Digimon there can open and close the gate, we need to make sure we're prepared in case we get trapped over there," Tai explained.

"That's just making me even more nervous," Sora admitted. "I wish I could come with you, but I know I should stay and watch over Xen... Plus, somebody will have to call Mila in sick if you can't bring them back in time for school on Monday. If nobody else will do it, I guess I have to."

"We'll be back soon, Sora," smiled Tai. "It'll be fine. Matt, Izzy, and I will have them back in a few days."

"I would have expected TK or Kari to come along to make sure Sato was okay," Sora frowned.

"They were going to come, but they can't exactly risk leaving the house at the moment with Isara back again," Tai told her. "I'm going to do my best to take care of him for them. You can go and check on them if need be, right?"

"Of course. I'll try to drop by after school each day to make sure they're doing okay," Sora nodded. "How soon are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning. Izzy has a few last-minute preparations to finish up before we can head over there, so we're going to let him take care of that stuff before heading out," Tai replied. "The Digimon are already asleep, right? I don't want them getting exhausted with what we have to go and do tomorrow."

"Speaking of exhausted, I think it's time for you to go to sleep as well," Sora said. "I can finish up packing for you. You have somewhere to be tomorrow. I'm only going to be hanging around here. I can afford to stay up a little bit longer if I need it, but you're going to need all the rest you can get for the big day."

Tai let out a sigh. "Alright," he murmured. He wanted to fight back and tell her that he was fine, but he knew that fighting against Sora when she went into her motherly bear mode was fruitless. She was simply too stubborn like this. "I'll go to bed, but you shouldn't stay up for much longer, okay?"

"I won't," Sora assured him with a smile. She placed a gentle kiss against his cheek. "It's going to be okay. I'm sure that you'll bring them all home. I believe in you. I know you're worried, but we have it all under control."

Tai nodded slowly. "Thanks," he said gently, unsure of what else to say. He leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes, finally letting exhaustion take him.

Sora placed a small box of bandages into the front pocket of the bag on the bed before approaching Tai one more time. She brushed her fingers against his face and let out a sigh. A few tears formed in her eyes, dropping down onto his face soundlessly. Sora rubbed them away before turning back to the bag. She left the room not long after, off to get whatever supplies Tai had forgotten about thus far.

* * *

Mila found herself awakening from a fitful sleep she hadn't even realized she'd sunk into. She shook her head and rubbed at her eyes. Saki was curled up with Gabumon and a few baby Digimon in their arms. Sato was holding Salamon in one arm and Elecmon in the other as a few Poyomon snored softly from his hair.

Agumon was nearby, practically drowning in slumbering Botamon. Mila glanced around for a moment longer before she remembered where she was and what had happened. Instantly, she felt a pang of fear tug at her heart.

Mila shook it off the best she could and got to her feet, stretching her arms out. She got the feeling she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep after that, so she might as well take a small walk. Her legs were itching for something to do. Mila had always paced when she was nervous, and this time was no exception.

Mila slowly exited the building at the center of Primary Village. She hadn't realized how ruined this place had been before. Pain and pity pulled at her heart for the babies and eggs that had been destroyed in the attack. Mila shook her head to banish the painful memories at the back of her mind. Everything was going to be fine. She shouldn't think all negatively like that. It would only cause more problems for her later on.

Mila suddenly felt a small tremor in her feet. She looked down and saw the ground was shaking ever so slightly. She didn't know what it was, but she was already getting a bad feeling. Mila glanced around, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. She decided on east, so she began walking in that direction.

Mila only had to walk for three or so minutes before she found what she was looking for. Mila crouched down against the ground and looked around, using a smoke-coated block as a shield from whatever was before her. She glanced around once again, hoping she could see what was causing such a tremor.

Mila's eyes shot open the second she realized what was going on. Any sleepiness she had been feeling before drained away in the blink of an eye, leaving her more alert than she had ever been before. She got to her feet instantly, ready to fight until she realized Agumon wasn't by her side at that moment. He was still back at the building in the center of town with the others. Mila wasn't able to do a thing without him, so she had to retreat.

She turned on her heel and began to run as quietly as she could. She held her breath to keep from letting out a scream of panic. She slid up to the building where everybody was and finally released the air she had been holding inside. The others were still asleep. Mila threw open the door loudly, letting the handle slam against the wall.

Mila cringed at the sound, instantly regretting how noisy she had been. She saw Elecmon open his eyes slowly as she shut the door, hoping that their soon-to-be assailant wouldn't find them. Her heart was pounding faster than she had ever heard it before, feeling like it was skipping beats everywhere.

"What's going on?" Elecmon grumbled. "Is something wrong?"

"It's SkullMeramon," Mila explained, letting out a heavy breath. "He's here. I don't know how he figured out we were here, but he came back. We are in so much trouble right now..."

Elecmon was awake fully in the blink of an eye. He got to his feet and began to nudge at Sato's arm to wake him. The young boy was conscious not long after. "Get up. SkullMeramon is back," he hissed to Sato as the boy and his partner woke up completely.

Saki, who had been disturbed from sleep by the door before, got up as well. Gabumon followed suit a few seconds later. The babies on Saki were still asleep, so they placed all the small Digimon on the ground together carefully. "We have to go and fight him, don't we?" they asked with a frown. They made sure all the children were bundled together closely to make up for the lack of warmth previously provided by her body.

"We don't have a choice," Mila told them. "We said we would help out here, and that includes protecting the village from SkullMeramon."

"I should probably get the babies out of here. I don't want to chance them getting hurt in the fight," Elecmon said. "I'm going to sneak them out of the village through a back entrance in the area."

"There's a back entrance?" asked Saki. "I had no idea."

"I only ever use it if something happens to the village and it isn't safe anymore for the babies inside. I had been hoping they'd leave the village alone after that attack, but I guess not," Elecmon sighed. "It's dangerous for them outside too, but I think I'd rather chance being out there than in here."

"That's probably wise," nodded Mila. "We can take care of this."

"Can we? We've only got two Champions against an Ultimate Digimon. Like I said before, sometimes, it takes more than six Champions to topple an Ultimate," Saki pointed out. "It's not going to happen unless we're saved by some sort of miracle."

"We don't have a choice," Mila reminded them. "If we don't fight him, then he's just going to follow us and try to destroy more of the children. I can't have that. We need to make sure everybody here is safe. It's part of our duty."

"Duty or no, we should probably get ready to fight them off," Sato suggested.

"I actually don't know how well that's going to work out," frowned Salamon. "It's been hours since we had anything to eat. We won't be able to fight off SkullMeramon without any food. We don't have enough energy to pull it off."

Mila felt her stomach drop into her feet. "Oh, my," she frowned. "I don't know how we're going to deal with that then. We can't really fight SkullMeramon like this. Rookies stand even less of a chance... We're as good as screwed."

"I hadn't even realized we hadn't eaten anything with all that's happened. I've been feeling sick ever since we got here, so food was the last thing to cross my mind," admitted Saki. "We don't seem to have much of a choice though. We're going to have to go with Elecmon and go on the defensive. Offense is out of the question, so this is our only option."

"I hate this," Mila grumbled, picking up three sleeping babies in each arm. "I guess we have to do it though... Man, this is awful. I wish there was more we could do."

"Until our parents show up, this is the most we can do," frowned Sato. "Let's be as careful as we can."

Elecmon began to walk out of the building through the back door. He gestured with his head to get the kids to follow after him. "This way, everyone. We're going to be okay," he assured them, allowing four babies to clamber up his tail and onto his back.

Despite his words, Mila knew that he was lying just to make the babies feel a little bit better. She wasn't sure if they were going to be fine like he was telling them, but she was praying. It was all she could really do at that point.

* * *

 _ **I know this chapter was a bit on the filler side, but it's mostly set-up for the next few chapters. Chapter fifteen gets into Digital World expeditions and sixteen has all sorts of fun. Yay.**_

 _ **I'm updating QATH and DOD next week, which is pretty cool. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed!**_

 _ **-Digital**_


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